


The Forget-Me-Not

by Peachygotit



Series: The Forget-Me-Not series [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Based on Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki, Character Death, Drug Use, Mental Health Issues, Minor Violence, Mystery, Tragedy, Warning: Felix, but no vampires, first several chapters are calm because of the mystery but it picks up later on, if anyone's acting weird its b/c of the plot, really really brief Volpina cameo, set in an asylum, shipping takes a backseat but some ships are teased
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 01:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8037571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peachygotit/pseuds/Peachygotit
Summary: In an AU where akuma have become their own species, akuma teens are sent to asylums until adulthood. Marinette is looking for Mylene one day, but discovers that no one at the asylum remembers her. When trying to find out if Mylene ever really existed, the secrets of the asylum begin emerging, and Marinette finds out that there are some dreams that you shouldn't wake up from. (Originally posted on Fanfiction.net) (Based off of Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki).





	1. Don't Forget Me

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: the italicized portions at the beginning of each chapter are adapted translations by Project!Hello and 赤月の輪 of songs from the musical Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki. They serve to set the tone of each chapter. In addition, Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki is the musical that I'm basing this story off of. While the general plot is the same, I've changed stuff up, and I do not intend on following the original story exactly. I especially don't intend on taking any dialogue directly from the musical. You do not have to be familiar with Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki to read this story. In fact, it might be better if you haven't seen it, so you're not desensitized the plot twists that I kept in. But if you have, then you'll see in the following chapter that I've changed stuff up and added stuff in. This entire chapter, actually, was never a scene in the original musical.
> 
>  
> 
> VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: When you read this chapter, you'll see that I have named Felix in this story and not Adrien. I have actually never watched the original Ladybug PV in its entirety, so what I actually know about Felix's personality is just superficial. The use of "Felix" is intended to mirror how the main male protagonist in Lilium Shoujo Junketsu Kageki used the name "False." Take that as you will.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I originally posted this fic on Fanfiction.net, but, since I got an account here, I thought I'd post it here, too. This fic will be more or less the same as the one I posted on Fanfiction.net, but I'll combine some of the chapters and change a few of the author's notes and italicized portions (i.e. this first chapter is a combination of the first and second chapters on Fanfiction.net)

 

 

 

> _Deep in a forest that had lost all color, there was a secret garden that no one knew about._
> 
> _A lone gardener reached out quietly, and picked one of the countless, nameless small flowers that had all wilted._
> 
> _Even the most beautifully blooming flower will wilt, and because they all die, they all bloom beautifully._
> 
> _But that lonely gardener never gave up, and tried to create a flower that would never wilt, that would forever bloom eternally in this world._
> 
> _But that was an impossible wish, and so the flowers said unto the despairing gardener with all their heart, "Don't forget me."_
> 
> _This the story of the Forget-Me-Not._

* * *

 

There was a dull pounding in her head, a constant hum that made Marinette groan from discomfort. For a moment, she wondered why everything was black and why her head hurt, but then she realized that she had her eyes closed. Marinette didn't bother to open them, and continued to lay there with the pounding in her head until the sensation began fading away.

Marinette could feel the cold, hard cement beneath her body, small raindrops dropping from the sky, and the coolness in the breeze. With a start, it was clear that she was outside somewhere, and Marinette was confused. Why would she have fallen asleep  _outside_  of all places? That, coupled with the strange headache she had, and it was apparent that something had happened. She could not have simply fallen asleep outside, on the ground, when it was raining, and then wake up with a headache and not have it be suspicious.

Marinette pondered more on what she had been doing before falling unconscious, before realizing that she just couldn't remember. She then realized with a slight panic that she couldn't remember  _where_  she was. Yes, she was outside, but where outside? What part of the world? What was her last name? Did she even have a last name? Were last names still a thing?

Did she have a home? Friends? Family? What was her life like? What was the world even like? She couldn't remember.

Then, the last aches of Marinette's head pain faded, and it all came rushing back to her at once.

Her name was Marinette, just Marinette. Her hair was dark, her eyes were blue, and she liked wearing her hair in pigtails. She also liked sewing and drawing pretty clothes. Her childhood was a blur, she couldn't remember anything specific.

She was an akumatized human, or just akuma for short. Akuma were human-like creatures who were corrupt by negative energy. This negative energy would come from a vulnerable human, and latch itself onto a butterfly that would be possessed by it. This butterfly in its entirety, negative energy and all, would be absorbed by the vulnerable human and turn them into a human-like creature with a single superpower based on their personality.

What made a human vulnerable to this negative energy would be, naturally, extreme negative emotions. Jealousy. Anger. Sadness. Frustration. Often times something horrible would happen to someone that would completely devastate them, and then the corrupt butterfly would do its job.

Akuma created in this way were purebreds.

Marinette was a purebred. Her superpower was the lucky charm, which allowed her to summon a yo-yo that was red with black spots. She could then use this yo-yo to summon random objects that were always red with black polka-dots. This power also came with some extra good luck.

Once turned, there was no cure, and no way to turn back into a human. Akuma were like the vampires from myths: almost human, but very clearly not.

After normal humans got used to the presence of what they called  _monsters_ , scientists discovered little details that made these akuma different from humans, all originating from the butterflies that corrupted them. The most obvious of these differences was the superpower granted to them, which could vary between time travel or talking to pigeons.

Other differences include feeling negative emotions more powerfully than a human would, and chaotic tendencies as a result. Akuma could also be identified by their drastic change in appearance, which could include strange new skin colors, bizarre hair, and an outlandish uniform that could be summoned at will.

Marinette's uniform was a red full-body suit with black polka-dots and a mask over her eyes. But she usually wore a plain white tee and a pair of khaki capris instead of her akuma uniform.

What was common to every akuma was a power called initiative. Akuma could summon the same negative energy that corrupted them in the first place, and use it to target humans or other akuma. This would, however, leave the user extremely fatigued depending on how strong their will was.

How it worked was that first the akuma had to summon the negative energy in their dominant hand, and then aim it at the intended target. Targeted humans would be so overwhelmed that it would draw a corrupt butterfly to them and they would be immediately be akumatized.

Using initiative on an akuma, however, was like branding them, laying claim to another's mind. Initiative could not grant anyone the use of someone else's superpower, but the spreading of the negative energy would penetrate the mind of the akuma targeted and it would sit in their mind. The user of initiative would then be able to control the target at will.

More than one akuma could control the same akuma.

An akuma could control more than one akuma.

This quality, more than any other quality of the akuma, was shamed by humans for being despicable. Using initiative would get an akuma imprisoned, and they were sometimes taken straight to execution depending on the extent of the damage done.

With how akuma had superpowers, chaotic tendencies, heightened negative emotions, uniforms that could be summoned by will, and initiative, it was no wonder humans feared them. In the past, just being an akuma could get one sent to jail.

Since then, humans had developed a system to keep akuma in line without having to resort to jailing them all. Families would send underage akuma to their local asylum until they became adults. There, they took remedies to ensure that they would not be causing too much trouble after they were released. Akuma that caused trouble as adults would receive appropriate punishment, and then be sent to a rehab center to properly correct their behavior.

Despite the fact that akuma were viewed as monsters, sending their children away to asylums was still heartbreaking for most families. Oftentimes, akuma that came out of these asylums as adults would never choose to return home to their families, since they had no obligation to do so as adults. This would only serve to create more tragedy among families.

But, without time in an asylum, adolescent akuma would rampage across the world. At least this way, they would be taught to control themselves properly. It was for this reason that the use of asylums for akuma became an accepted practice.

Marinette went to the Françoise Dupont Deux Asylum. It was located in the middle of a dense forest, where it was always cloudy and rained nearly every day. This meant that everyone at the asylum had to wear a rain-jacket and rain-boots, which were provided. These jackets were made specifically for the climate of the forest, and were always plain black.

While the rain jackets were provided, other clothes and items were not. To get them, there was an office in the mess hall where patients could place an order, and the items would shipped to the dorm room immediately free of charge. Food for akuma patients was, of course, provided, though akuma did not need to eat as often as humans did, a single meal a day would suffice. And meal time would take place at the same time that they would take their mandatory medicine.

All of this settled into Marinette's mind, and she became more aware of what was going on around her as she lay on the ground, eyes still closed.

"Oh, I can't believe that I've been sleeping on the roof of all places! Look at my clothes! Ugh, they're soaking wet thanks to this stupid rain! Sabrina! What were you thinking?"

That was unmistakably Chloe's voice. The girl was insufferable and was the cause of more akuma rampages than Marinette could count. Her superpower was supposedly called anticharm, which allowed her to summon a threatening weapon. As long as she was at the asylum, however, she and the other akuma would never be allowed to use any of their superpowers.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe! I promise I'll give you a massage later to make up for it."

That was Sabrina. Chloe's lackey, her assistant, her follower, her minion, her partner. Marinette vaguely recalled Sabrina's superpower to be something along the lines of invisibility. Chloe had used it to threaten people more than once, despite the mandatory medicine suppressing everyone's abilities.

"Hey, Marinette, you okay? Get up!"

That was her best friend, Alya, who was really into gossip. Her superpower had everything to do with wifi and smartphones, which was practically useless at the asylum, where there wasn't such communication.

Marinette groaned and blearily opened her eyes to see Alya in a crouch next to her. Slowly sitting up, Marinette rubbed her eyes with a yawn, and looked around to see that she was on top of the roof of the girls' dorm. The boys' dorm was the building to the right, and the mess hall and recreation center were both behind her somewhere. All around the campus was the thick foliage of the woods.

Marinette wearily stretched before slouching again and facing her friend. She sighed, feeling rather sluggish, and replied, "Hey, Alya. Don't worry, I'm fine."

Alya raised an eyebrow and moved to sit down, not quite believing Marinette, and replied, "You look really tired."

Marinette blinked at Alya a few times, and noticed how weary her friend looked, and deadpanned, "You're one to talk."

Alya raised her arms in surrender with a chuckle and said, "Guilty as charged." The conversation stopped then, Alya sobering up with a tired sigh, and Marinette silently looking around at the others on the roof.

Ivan stoically stood off to the side with his arms crossed, though Marinette could tell that he was troubled from the look in his eyes.

Alix was standing a few feet in front of him, prodding an unconscious Kim with her foot.

Max, the gamer, stood beside Alix and watched her as she gave a swift kick to Kim's side to wake him up.

Nathanael was alone as usual, huddled up in the corner. His hands were constantly shifting and twitching, with nothing to channel his nervous energy into.

Rose and Juleka were speaking in hushed tones with Felix and Nino by the doorway leading back into the building. Nino was frustrated, arguing with the others while Juleka was quick to firmly reply in her trademarked monotone voice. Rose was worried and trying to keep the peace, though Marinette could tell she was on Juleka's side. Felix appeared to be calm, though Marinette couldn't read the seemingly haunted look in his eye.

The conversation between Rose, Juleka, Felix, and Nino stalled as Chloe stomped over to them with Sabrina following behind her. The four of them exchanged a mysterious look before Nino angrily huffed and marched over to stand beside Ivan.

All four of them were prefects, peer leaders who were in charge of taking care of the others and reported to the director of the asylum. The director was never around, but he kept in constant contact with the prefects. There were no actual janitors, teachers, staff members, or other adults at the asylum. While janitorial duties were filled by akuma patients with nothing better to do, all the other roles of teaching and managing the asylum were filled by the prefects. Even the role of taking care of the younger children at the asylum was also handled by prefects as well.

All prefects were, of course, also akuma who had to take medicine just like the rest of them. They just had the added responsibility of taking care of their peers.

Wordlessly, Juleka crossed her arms and moved to stand in front of the door, saying to the approaching Chloe, "Its medicine time." She then addressed everyone on the roof as she said in a louder voice, "All of you are to report to the mess hall for your medicine at once." She looked over at Chloe as she added, "Do you understand, Chloe?"

Chloe cried out in exasperation, "But I look like a wreck!" She grumbled and crossed her arms in anger, before Sabrina tentatively poked her arm, panicked at the idea of angering Juleka. Chloe sent Sabrina a glare, before turning back to Juleka and sighing in resignation, "Ok, fine, whatever, I'll eat my damn medicine."

With that, Rose moved to open the door and held it open as she said, "Come on, off to the mess hall you go." Juleka went through first, leading the way as Chloe, Sabrina, Ivan, Nino, Alix, Kim, Max, Nathanael, and then Rose herself afterwards.

Marinette watched them, counting them one-by-one, and feeling as though someone were missing. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down, thinking hard, but not being able to think of just what was missing. Marinette looked over at Alya with a contemplative look on her face, wondering just what had happened. Why were they all on the roof? Why did she feel like she was forgetting something?

"Alya," Marinette started slowly, "Do you have the feeling that we're forgetting something important? Why are we up here? Where's My-" Marinette cut herself off then, a frown taking over her face as she began wondering just what she was going to say. A name? She couldn't remember, but, for some reason, Marinette felt as though it was important.

Alya watched Marinette carefully as the half-Asian went back to thinking. Alya sighed, feeling too emotionally exhausted for this, and simply stood up and offered Marinette a hand, "C'mon, Sherlock, we'll talk about that later, it's time to- whoa, oh hey, Felix!"

Felix had silently walked over to them, and placed a hand gently on Alya's shoulder. This got the attention of them both, as he said, "You go on ahead with the others, Alya. I'll help Marinette up."

Alya looked over at Marinette with concern, to which the dark-haired girl responded with an unsure shrug, and then Alya was leaving with a cautious, "Alright, Marinette, I'll see you at the mess hall."

Felix, about a head and a half taller than Marinette herself. He had vivid green eyes and blonde hair that flopped on his head in a way that was messy yet still slightly brushed back. Felix held out a hand to Marinette with a weary smile, as if he were weighed down by the burdens of a thousand years' worth of depression.

Marinette took his hand, and he pulled her up to her feet, steadying her with a hand on her arm before Marinette gently pulled away. "Thanks for helping me up, Felix," Marinette offered with an awkward smile, not sure what to say in response. She felt oddly shy, not quite sure of why Felix had wanted to talk to her alone.

Felix's tired smile wavered as he replied, "No problem." He then took a deep breath in and out, as if trying to calm himself down, before adding casually, "I just wanted to tell you that if there's anything you need, you can come to me, and I'll be glad to help. And, hey, the rain jackets are more than a little bland, and I'd be grateful if someone as talented as you could help us out with giving them a little more flair. There's also some extra room in the recreation center if you want to start a sewing thing."

At the prospect of a new project and being able to customize her rain jacket, Marinette brightened up, as she responded with an excited squeal, "I'd be happy to! Thank you so much!"

As she walked back inside the girls' dorm talking about designs with Felix, Marinette's troubled thoughts were pushed to the back to be dealt with later.

The concept of time at the asylum, however, was skewed. "Later" could be anywhere between two days or ten years, and none of them would've noticed.

Marinette would've never known.

As Marinette gushed about how cute a ladybug pattern would look on the rain jackets, she missed how Felix watched her with eyes narrowed in suspicion. He looked away, biting his lip with a pained expression on his face.

Felix, however, quickly schooled it back into a practiced smile and turned back to Marinette, reminding himself of who he was now, and what he had to protect.

He couldn't afford any more losses.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Time goes on.

Since that day she woke up on the roof of the girls’ dorm, Marinette had been living with a constant, nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something important. The feeling followed her with everything she did, like an itch that was on that one part of the back that you couldn’t reach.

Marinette now spent most of her time in the recreation center, customizing people’s plain clothing and rain gear using supplies that Felix had ordered for her. She worked with a few other akuma patients that had interests in sewing and designing.

So far, Marinette and her team had customized clothes by hand for nearly everyone in the asylum.

Ivan had requested having white cross-bones put on his plain black shirts, while Alix had simply asked for twin green stripes down the sides of her black t-shirts and black gym shorts. Kim had asked for a plain red shooting star symbol on his white t-shirts, while Nino had asked for a black-and-white eye symbol on his blue t-shirts.

Even Chloe had asked for black stripes around the waist of her white tee, while Felix had asked for different colored stripes around the chest of his black shirt. Both requests were surprising, since Chloe actually hated Marinette (and everyone else), while Felix was always unbelievably busy.

Rose and Juleka had even asked for Marinette to customize their clothes, which was also surprising, since the two hardly talked to others unless it had something to do with their duties as prefects.

Marinette’s best friend, Alya, had only asked for Marinette to embroider the pockets of one of her shorts, otherwise content with her plaid button-up and white tee.

The most popular request Marinette received, however, was customizing pajamas for the kids.

Like all other clothes one could order from the asylum, pajamas were always single colored. And while the older patients were content with this, there were patients at the asylum who were as young as 7 or 8 years old, having been sent to the asylum earlier than the average person due to their dangerous superpowers.

These kids were prone to getting upset nearly all the time, and thus prefects eagerly jumped at every opportunity that could calm the kids down. The prefects in charge of the kids took care of most of the requests, but a few of the kids had even shyly approached Marinette and her team directly.

This was the project that Marinette was currently working on.

She sat in a room on the third floor of the recreation center, filled entirely with tables and chairs that were covered in sewing supplies and clothing. Marinette was at one of these tables, currently putting little baby turtles on one boy’s pajamas.

A female akuma with hair tainted white and skin tainted magenta entered the room, aggressively retrieving a roll of cloth before promptly leaving the room again without a word. A male akuma with hair and skin tainted various shades of blue was sitting with his back to the door, also working on a project. He chuckled upon hearing the female akuma storm out, and said, “Jeez, _someone_ ’s in a bad mood today.”

Marinette shrugged, looking up only briefly before returning to her work, “Eveline’s been in a bad mood for a while now.”

The male akuma laughed before replying mirthfully, “I wonder why.”

Marinette paused in her work, looking up at him in suspicion, “Uh, Gerald, do you know something?” That feeling was coming back, but Marinette quickly pushed it away.

Gerald held up the sweater vest he was working on and looked at it as he said with faux innocence, “Nope, not really.” A visible smirk then crossed his face as he said, “Just that I got Rudolph to cheat on her.”

Marinette shot Gerald an exasperated look, yet secretly relieved that it wasn’t anything serious, and asked, “Really? Ugh, Gerald, you’re almost as bad as Chloe.”

Gerald scoffed, “Are you kidding? It was about time they split up. No one looking like Santa’s kinky little helper should be in a relationship with a cone of cotton candy like Eveline.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and went back to the pajamas as she replied, “You can tease her all you want, but you just want Eveline to yourself.”

Gerald shrugged nonchalantly and retorted, “So? What’s wrong with that?”

He then turned the sweater vest around to show to Marinette, revealing an unfinished diamond pattern, “Hey, what do you think of Sabrina’s sweater-vest? I got the teal diamonds on there, it took fucking _forever_ my god. But did she want purple diamonds to go with it, or green ones?”

Marinette looked up for a moment in thought, trying to remember. Again that feeling came back, but she pushed it away, before replying with an unsure shrug, “I don’t remember. Why don’t you just make another one and have one of each? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind having two sweater vests.” 

Gerald groaned in exasperation and threw the unfinished sweater vest back on the table, “God, that’s going to take such a long time. I made this entire damn sweater-vest from scratch. Why the fuck are normal sweaters on Felix’s ordering list but not sweater vests? That’s bullshit.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow as she pointed out, “Well, _we_ might not have to pay for this stuff, but it’s not like Felix just gets it for free. Someone has to pay for it, so there’s bound to be limitations on what he can get.”

Gerald sighed, “Yeah, whatever.” He then grudgingly went back to work on Sabrina’s sweater vest, and the room was plunged back into silence as Marinette did the same.

The silence was not meant to last, however, as the door creaked open and a nervous yet slightly deep voice hesitantly said, “Um, hello? C-can I come in?”

Gerald briefly looked over his shoulder to see Nathanael at the door with his purple-tinted skin and red hair. Gerald promptly went back to work as he said, “Yeah, sure.”

Nathanael noticed how Gerald ignored him, and bit his lip nervously, before letting himself relax. Disregard was ok, better than hate at least.

He entered the room, and approached Marinette with more confidence as he said in a more stable tone of voice yet with a slight stutter at the beginning, “Hi, I, uh heard that you were customizing clothes for people, and I was wondering if you could do something for me?”

Marinette, in contrast to Gerald, put down her needle and thread to give Nathanael her full attention as she asked with a kind smile, “Sure! Of course I could, what would you like?”

Nathanael felt a tentative smile come over his face for the first time in what felt like forever – no one talked to him as kindly as Marinette did.

The redhead reached with shaking hands into the pocket of his black pants, and pulled out a crumpled-up napkin with a design drawn on it with some kind of condiment. He then opened up his black rain jacket a bit to reveal that one of his orange t-shirts had been thrown over his shoulder. Placing the shirt on the table with the napkin, he said with a slight eagerness to his anxious tone of voice, “I-I just wanted t-this design on my shirt.”

Marinette picked up the napkin to look at the design, surprised at the defined outline of the drawing despite the fact that it’d been drawn with such crude tools. It was good for something that’d been drawn in sauce, indicating some sort of secret skill.

Secret talents… it reminded her of something… someone? The feeling was back, but Marinette quickly pushed it away. She gave Nathanael another kind smile as she said, “Sure! I’d be glad to. I’ll work on it as soon as I’m done with these pajamas, is that fine with you?”

Nathanael nodded in an anxious joy and replied happier than she’d ever heard him, “Yes, of course! Thank you so much!”

“No problem!” Marinette offered in reply, and, with that, Nathanael turned away with one more longing glance towards Marinette before nervously making his way out the door.

Before he could walk through, however, the door slammed open, making everyone in the room jump in surprise, Gerald even poking his finger accidentally with the needle with a, “Dammit! What the fuck?”

Nathanael’s eyes widened in fear, and he backed up away from the door, only to realize that Marinette was looking back at him in worry. All of a sudden, it was all too much, and he was backing himself up against the wall, shaking in anxiety and curling in on himself as Chloe stalked in, Sabrina following her.

“Marinette! Gerald! Or whoever’s working on my clothes, are you done yet?” Chloe then paused and wrinkled her nose with disgust before saying, “Ugh, what’s that _smell_? Did someone skip a shower or something?”

The blonde then looked over at the wall to the far left of the room, and saw Nathanael backed up against it, as if trying to fuse with the wall would make him disappear. With a smirk, Chloe sneered, “Oh, why it’s not a some _one_ , but a some _thing_! What’re you doing here, _half-breed_ , trying to get Marinette to spice up your pathetic little rags?”

Nathanael just continued shaking in anxiety, and just looked down at his hands as Chloe continued, “Well, you can try, but no amount of extra designs on those _things_ can ever get rid of your disgusting, pathetic, and completely depressing _smell_ that comes with all of you _savages_. Didn’t you kill your own mother? How worthless.”

“Chloe,” Marinette began firmly, not willing to take a back seat while Chloe continued to rip on Nathanael, “stop it. He didn’t do anything to you.”

“No,” the word surprisingly came from Nathanael, and Marinette looked over at him in surprise. The redhead had a resigned look on his face, as he said despondently, “it-it’s always been like this. Y-you don’t… I mean… I-I’ll just go now…” He then scurried off, trying to slip by through the door, but not being able to escape being tripped by Sabrina.

Chloe laughed, “What a rat!” Marinette could tell that Nathanael was fighting back tears as he ran off, and Chloe shook her head, “and a crybaby, too, how hopeless!”

Marinette thought back to how Nathanael seemed so small when scurrying out of the room, and the feeling that she was forgetting something returned… Hadn’t someone else done something like that? But she pushed the thought away and sent a glare at Chloe, “That was so uncalled for! What has Nathanael ever done to you?”

Chloe scoffed and retorted as if she were stating a fact that Marinette should’ve known, “ _Existed_? You heard him, it’s always been this way and it’s not like we’re all gonna stop now.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’re all’?” Marinette asked searchingly.

Chloe raised an eyebrow and replied, “What, you lost your memory or something?” That strange feeling hit Marinette full force with those words, but Chloe continued on, “Everyone at the asylum avoids the tomato head half-breed freak. And have you heard some of the stuff Alix has said to him? I’m a saint compared to that pink-haired weirdo.”

As if on cue, Marinette heard screams coming from outside, and she got up to go to the window. Looking out, she spotted Nathanael exiting the building, and a crowd of children had spotted him and screamed in fear. Marinette bit her lip in worry, concerned for Nathanael. _He just wanted to pass through_ , and the children were still screaming at him as if he were the devil.

She watched as Nathanael walked around the children, only to go past Alix, Kim, Max, Alya, Ivan, and Nino near the girls’ dorm. She watched as Alix in particular backed away from Nathanael as if he had the plague, and said something Marinette could tell was rude. As Nathanael walked out of their sight, Marinette caught sight of his face, and her heart clenched as she realized that he was crying.

Marinette turned back around and sat down in her chair with a sigh. She looked over at Gerald, who hadn’t looked up from his work throughout the entire conversation. Marinette nudged the table that he sat at with her foot, and he looked up for a brief second, long enough for him to shake his head at her, before returning back to his work.

It then hit her all at once.

She was the only one at this entire asylum who didn’t see Nathanael as some kind of freak, or some kind of plague.

And for what reason? Because he was an akumatized half-breed? Sure, he was more dangerous, but treating him so poorly would only fuel his negative emotions... Did no one understand that?

Marinette turned to Chloe and said wearily, knowing there was no chance of Chloe listening to her, “Look, Chloe, just, ease up once in a while, ok? It wouldn’t kill you.”

Chloe predictably scoffed and said, “As if. Look, are my clothes done?”

Gerald then finally spoke up and said, “Yeah, they’re over with Eveline across the hall.”

“Ugh, I came in here for no reason then! What a waste of my time,” Chloe turned around and moved to storm out of the room.

Sabrina, however, lingered for just a moment to ask in a more subdued tone than her blonde friend, “Is my sweater vest done, yet?”

Gerald shook his head and replied, “Nah, not quite, it’s gonna take some extra time. I should have them done two meals from now at most.”

Sabrina brightened up, excited to get her sweater-vest, and said, “Oh, thank you so much!” Chloe then shouted for her, and then Sabrina was out of the door without a second glance.

With Chloe and Sabrina finally out of the room, Marinette slumped over onto the table with a groan, careful not to mess up her work on the turtle pajamas.

Akumatized half-breeds had a bad reputation, even worse than normal akumatized humans, worse than 2nd or 3rd generation akuma, and definitely worse than normal half-breeds. Marinette knew that this poor reputation followed Nathanael around like a plague.

Of course, such a reputation didn’t come from nowhere.

When akuma became a normal occurrence, so had the prospect of the akuma marrying other akuma and producing children. These children would be _born_ akuma, and were called 2 nd generation akuma. The children of a 2nd generation akuma would be called a 3rd generation akuma, and so on.

Akuma were legally allowed to marry humans, but this was a practice that came with severe social repercussions. Not only because marrying someone with such pent up anger or depression and strange superpowers was dangerous, but also because of what would become of their children.

Such children of an akuma and a human were called half-breeds. Half-breeds could be anywhere between 0% and 100% akuma, but were never completely human or akuma. Whether the child had more akuma traits or more human traits depended on the mother.

If the mother was an akuma, then the child would show more traits of being an akuma, with their own akuma uniform, superpower, and a matching set of chaotic, angry, and depressed emotions to come with the package. If the mother was a human, the child would be blessed with a clearer mind, and only a mere affinity for their skill instead of having full-blown superpowers.

Most half-breeds fell somewhere in the middle. For example, if a pure-bred akuma had powers over the weather, they would be able to control it. If this akuma were instead a more human-like half-breed, then they would only have a knack for accurately predicting the weather. If this akuma were purely half-human and half-akuma, then they would only have a minor influence over the weather, and their negative emotions could be controlled since they weren’t as strong.

The reputation of a normal half-breed varied depending on whether they were more human-like, more akuma-like, or purely half-and-half. If the half-breed could pass as a pure-bred akuma, then they could and would be treated as such, there was little ambiguity there.

Half-breeds that were more half-and-half couldn’t be categorized so easily, and it all depended on which akuma traits they inherited. Some radicals on the human side would discriminate against them anyway, because just being part akuma was bad enough. Other akuma would be envious of their ability to control their negative emotions, though pitied their weaker superpowers at the same time. How other humans treated these half-breeds would depend on their control over these emotions, how cool their powers were, and the reputation of the akuma parent.

Half-breeds that were more human-like were treated like normal humans, only ever being discriminated against if the akuma parent had a reputation. But it was these human-like half-breeds that were in the most danger.

While other types of half-breeds showed more obvious akuma traits, human-like half-breeds didn’t have much of these traits at all. They were, thus, prone to be mistaken for pure-humans by strangers, or, even worse, _rampaging akuma_.

Normally, the corrupt butterflies and rampaging akuma that could turn humans into akuma would be able to tell the difference between a half-breed and a human, due to the aura of resentment and depression that wafted off of the akuma, as well as other traits.

They would know not to turn them into akuma, since they already were. Often times, turning them wouldn’t work at all, and they would be put under initiative instead. Sometimes, as is the case with half-breeds that were only around 45% akuma, there was no effect at all.

But, they wouldn’t be able to tell that the human-like half-breeds even had any akuma blood in them. Whatever small part of akuma blood they had in them at birth would often augment their temper tantrums if they had any, and were thus prone to be targeted by butterflies drawn to their episodes of distress.

Trying to turn such a half-breed _worked_ , and had disastrous results.

If a half-breed was only 10% akuma from birth, and then they were akumatized again by a butterfly, they would thus be 110% akuma.

They were _more_ of an akuma than normal akuma.

While such a half-breed would’ve been 90% _less_ of an akuma, they were now 10% _more_ of an akuma than the average akuma. This person now has 10% more anger, 10% more depression, 10% more superpowers than a full-akuma. Often times the dark energy that turned them would continue to linger. It could leak off of their skin like a permanent _threat_ , like a constant visible sign of their corruption, and how deranged they’ve become.

It was these akumatized half-breeds that rampaged the most, that lost control of their powers the most, that lost control over their sanity the most, that put others in danger the most, and the ones that needed the most help.

These akumatized half-breeds were required to be sent to an asylum _immediately_ , no matter the age or the social status. They were also _required_ to remain until they’d taken enough medicine and had enough therapy to control themselves, even if it wasn’t until well after adulthood.

It was a curse, but one they’d never asked for, one that they couldn’t help.

But no one cared for this fact. Humans, half-breeds, and pure-bred akuma alike all ostracized these akumatized half-breeds, called them “lunatics” and “savages.”

They saw them as monsters with no ounce of composure.

Marinette froze then, paused in her work on the turtle pajamas as she backpedaled to her last thought. “Monster…” hadn’t there been someone she’d known, someone who wasn’t an akumatized half-breed, but still feared being called a monster all the same?

That feeling returned full force, and this time, it would not be ignored.

It’d been a girl… right? And, and she’d been ashamed of her superpower, so much so that she had this fear complex. Her power had something to do with being turned into something that looked like a monster, but Marinette couldn’t remember the specifics.

Marinette’s eye caught a roll of cloth with rainbow-colored swirls all over it, and it hit her, didn’t this girl have colorful hair? Dreadlocks, were that what they were called? And, and a pink headband, she had one of those. Hadn’t Marinette been the one to make it for her?

A feeling of dread washed over her as she realized, _how had she even forgotten one of her companions at all?_ What really happened on that day when they woke up on the roof? Marinette hadn’t seen anyone in the asylum with such colorful hair, ever, and yet she could still remember clearly that this girl had been their friend. And, and wasn’t she Ivan’s girlfriend?

Marinette then realized with horror that she wasn’t the only one that’d forgotten about this girl. No one had ever mentioned her at all, not even Ivan. _Everyone_ had forgotten her, even her _boyfriend_.

Marinette was sure now that this girl had existed. But, where had she gone? Maybe, maybe she didn’t exist, and she was remembering it wrong? No, impossible. Marinette could feel it on her skin that this girl used to hang around the asylum, she had definitely existed.

But, what was her name?

Marinette was alarmed when she couldn’t remember her name. How had she forgotten?

Didin’t it start with an M? My-…. My-something? Myra? Myla? Myron? Myles? Mylie?

Then, it clicked, _Mylene_ , her name had been Mylene.

It was unsettling that Marinette had managed to forget one of her friends, and she made a resolution to look for Mylene, and find out why she hadn’t been around. Maybe if she asked around, people would remember…

The thought of asking her friends brought Marinette’s thoughts back to Nathanael, and she bit her lip in worry for the well-being of the redhead. She returned to her work on the turtle pajamas, determined to finish it and the rest of the pajamas so she could work on Nathanael’s shirt.

After a while of working quietly, Gerald broke the long silence, not looking up from his work on Sabrina’s sweater vest as he said, “It’s pointless trying to stand up for Nathanael, you know.”

Marinette simply shook her head with conviction, determined to finish her work, “Nobody deserves to be treated like that.”

At the other end of the asylum, the redheaded adolescent boy was crying again, secretly wishing that everyone would treat him like Marinette did, but knowing that they never would.


	2. I Don't Know Any Mylene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a combination of chapters 3 and 4 from the version I posted on Fanfiction.net

 

 

 

 

> " _I don't know any Mylene"_
> 
> " _I've never seen any Mylene"_
> 
> " _No one knows that girl"_
> 
> " _You're probably just tired"_
> 
> " _You must be dreaming"_
> 
> " _There's no one like that here"_
> 
> _At first, I thought that everyone must be playing a trick on me…_
> 
> …  _But they weren't_

* * *

Marinette's mind was reeling.

She was standing outside the recreation center, where Kim and Alix were doing another one of their ridiculous dares out of boredom. This time, they were trying to climb up the outside wall of the recreation center, and a crowd of akuma was standing outside watching. It was incredibly stupid and life threatening, especially out in the rain. Watching it was really unsettling, and gave Marinette a horrible feeling in her gut.

But Kim and Alix's stunt wasn't why she was so surprised, in fact, she wasn't even looking in their direction. 

Marinette blinked incredulously at a confused Max, both of them in their rain jackets with the hood pulled up due to the pouring rain, and said, "Wait, you seriously don't remember Mylene at all?"

Max shook his head, a perturbed expression on his face as raindrops splattered onto their rain jackets, "Not at all. Or, at least not the Mylene that you're speaking of. I know there's a Myia among the eight-year-olds, a Miley among the ten-year-olds, and a Miles among the thirteen-year-olds, but I don't know anyone with the name  _Mylene_."

Marinette grabbed at the hood of her rain jacket in frustration as she exclaimed, "Why doesn't anyone remember her? She was short, a little curvy, a little shy I think, and she had colorful dreadlocks and a pink headband… or was it a bandana?" She paused to think for a bit before adding, "She was in our age group, and she was in our friend group, too. She was  _Ivan's girlfriend_."

Max's eyes widened in surprise as he replied, "I would've remembered Ivan having a girlfriend, and no one here has colorful dreadlocks. In fact, I think the only one here with dreadlocks in our age group is Ranae, but her dreadlocks are not colorful, and she is certainly not short."

"No, it wasn't Ranae," Marinette shook her head. "You're not joking, right? You seriously don't know Mylene?  _She was our friend_."

Max pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he replied, "Are you sure Mylene's not just a figment of your imagination? Something from a dream? If Mylene were truly our friend, wouldn't she be here with us now? Wouldn't we have remembered her?"

Marinette sighed and said firmly, "No, she's not just from a dream, I can never remember my dreams. I know that she used to be with us,  _I can feel it_ , but I don't know where she is or why everyone doesn't know her."

"Know who?"

Marinette and Max turned to see Ivan approaching them, holding a plain black umbrella over his head in addition to wearing his raincoat.

Max pointed at Marinette with his thumb as he replied matter-of-factly, "Marinette seems to be thinking that a young woman named Mylene was in our friend group and your former girlfriend."

Ivan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "Girlfriend?" He then scoffed and said sarcastically, "Yeah, right, like I could get a girlfriend." He then looked curiously at Marinette and asked, "What's got you thinking that?"

Marinette sighed and replied, "Ever since that day we woke up on the roof, I've been having this weird feeling that I've been forgetting something… And then, a few meals ago, I remembered Mylene, but, no one else seems to know her."

Just then, there was a shout, and the three of them turned to see Kim falling off the side of the building, landing on the ground on his back with a loud thud. The crowd collectively cringed and winced, Marinette in particular exchanging an uneasy look with Ivan at the sight. That feeling that she was forgetting something returned with full force, and a feeling of dread hit Marinette.  _There was still something that she was forgetting_. Maybe Max was right after all?

What threw Marinette off again, however, was that Ivan had a similar look in his eye. Was he remembering Mylene? But then, he murmured just loud enough for Marinette and Max to hear, "I don't remember Mylene, I really don't. But, I guess I-"

Just then, the crowd burst into cheers and boos. Alix was sitting triumphantly on a windowsill three stories up, pumping her fist with a smug look on her face despite being drenched from the rain.

Alya's voice then rang out as she announced, "And, there you have it! Alix wins the bet! Kim now owes her his dessert next meal." Kim simply groaned from where he lay on the ground.

"No one will be owing anyone anything if you don't come down from that windowsill, Alix," Juleka said sternly as she and Rose approached. While Alix couldn't hear Juleka's low voice from up on the windowsill, the fact that the two of them had appeared at all was enough for her to sober up and start climbing down.

The crowd immediately began dispersing as well, not wanting to incur Juleka's wrath. Alya moved to stand beside Marinette, Max, and Ivan, the four of them taking a step back away from the scene as they watched it unfold.

Juleka pulled out a folded-up whip from her rain jacket as Rose helped a sore Kim up to his feet and said, "Kim, please report to the infirmary immediately."

Kim paled at the sight of Juleka's whip and took a look back at Alix, who was still making her way down the wall, before giving Rose a nervous laugh and saying, "Uh, I'm fine, really. This wasn't anything that bad, you know? No need to, uh, bring out the big guns." His wince as he got up to his feet, however, gave away that he had injured himself.

Juleka pointed to the mess hall with her whip and said sharply, " _Now_. You could've died from that fall, and it's pure luck that you didn't. You'll be excused from punishment this time due to injury, but if we see you doing another stunt like this you'll definitely be getting punished. Report to the infirmary, NOW."

Kim nodded vigorously, fearful of how mad Juleka was, before giving Alix an apologetic look and hobbling towards the mess hall to the infirmary.

Rose turned to Marinette's group and called over to Max, "Max, follow Kim, please. Make sure he gets to the infirmary."

"Yes, of course," with that, Max ran off to follow Kim, tense and worried.

Rose then sighed and turned to Alix, grabbing the pink-haired girl's wrist, as she said gravely, "Follow me, and give us your word that you won't do this again."

Alix looked over to the whip in Juleka's hand and cringed, having been on the receiving end of it before, no thanks to the dares she did with Kim. She met the eyes of both prefects, however, and noticed the haunted look in both of their eyes. Knowing that they genuinely worried for their health, Alix bowed her head with a sigh and said, "Yeah, I promise."

Rose gave a sigh in relief and said softly, "Thank you." She then led Alix away, Juleka following with a brief shudder, the whip in her hand.

Marinette watched as Felix walked past them, and she heard him say to Juleka, "Be careful with her." When Juleka nodded, Felix turned around to go to the mess hall, giving Marinette, Alya, and Ivan a brief wave as he did so.

An awkward silence ensued and Marinette felt compelled to break it as she said, "That-that bet might've been a bad idea."

Ivan and Alya nodded in agreement.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Alix was led to a room in the basement of the girls dorm, the walls and the floor both utterly blank. The only furnishing the room had at all was the cabinet in the far corner. Rose approached this cabinet and pulled out a few items, tossing a towel over to Alix.

Alix wordlessly caught the towel, and stripped off her rain jacket, customized black shirt, and sports bra and left them in a pile by the door. She then used the towel to dry herself off as Rose put a solution on her back.

Juleka stood against one of the walls, waiting, before Rose walked away to stand by the cabinet as Alix knelt down in the center of the room, her back to Juleka.

Juleka then spoke, her voice entirely serious, "How many can you take this time?"

Alix shot back, "How many were you going to give me?"

"A stunt like this deserves fifteen." Upon hearing that Alix's eyes widened. Never before had one of Kim's dares resulted in that many lashes, but Alix didn't let her panic show as Juleka added, "But how does six sound?"

 _She was going to go easy on her_. Alix balled her hands up into fists on her lap, and she would've been furious at the thought had she not overheard Felix's warning. Instead, the skater girl said firmly, "Don't go easy for my sake. Just give me however many you're willing to give."

Juleka gave a monotone "fine," and readied her whip.

Alix braced herself.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Max was in the mess hall, sitting on a chair outside the infirmary as Kim was getting looked at inside. He straightened up upon seeing Felix approach, and said, "Hey, Felix. What are you doing here?"

Felix ignored the question and asked gently instead, "Hi Max, is Kim inside?"

Max nodded, "Yeah, he is." Deducing that Felix was there to address the stunt Kim pulled with Alix, the gamer added, "I sincerely apologize on behalf of both Kim and Alix for worrying you and the other prefects with this stunt. I'll ensure that they won't do anything like this again."

Felix shook his head and replied with a reassuring smile, "Oh its fine, I wouldn't want to prevent Kim and Alix from having any competitions at all, I know things can get boring around here." His smile gave way to a serious look as he added, "Just make sure its not anything like climbing up the side of the building. Stunts like this are life-threatening, and no one wants to die, right?"

Max was quick to nod in agreement as he replied, "Yes, of course."

With that, Felix walked away with a, "Thank you, Max. I'll see you later."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Marinette, Alya, and Ivan sat in armchairs in the recreation center lobby. their rain jackets draped over the backs of the chairs.

Marinette bit her lip, thinking about Kim and Alix's stunt from earlier, and said, "I hope Kim and Alix are ok."

Alya winced and added, "Yeah, I can't remember the last time one of Kim's dares got them in enough trouble for Juleka to pull out her whip."

Ivan huffed, "I do. But Juleka wasn't nearly as mad."

Alya furrowed her eyebrows, not remembering the incident. But then it dawned on her and Alya said, "Oh yeah, I remember that." She shuddered and added, "Rose was actually the mad one back then. I feel like she would've taken Juleka's whip and dished out a few more lashes if Juleka hadn't held her back."

Ivan shook his head and said, "Even this dare wasn't as stupid as that one."

Marinette seemed distant, deep in thought as she stared at her lap and absentmindedly said, "Yeah..."

Alya raised an eyebrow and asked her friend, "Girl, you ok?" Ivan turned his head to look at Marinette, he and Alya watching the pig-tailed girl closely.

Marinette nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

The truth was, however, that she was thinking about the moment when Kim fell from the building. Seeing that made the nagging feeling return, which deeply confused Marinette. She remembered Mylene, what more to it was there? There was more that she was forgetting, and more that everyone else was forgetting.

Marinette was scared to find out what it was.

But she  _had_  to know. Was it really just a dream, like Max said? Maybe she was remembering it wrong, maybe Mylene was just a false memory. But, Marinette was sure that she existed...

Marinette sighed and addressed Alya and Ivan both as she asked, "Are-are you guys sure you don't remember Mylene?"

Alya sighed, too, just the slightest bit annoyed that Marinette kept asking that question, and replied, "Yes. Girl, don't you think we'd remember all our friends? And Ivan said himself that he doesn't have a girlfriend, and I've never seen  _anyone_  like Mylene in my life. Girl doesn't exist. I'd know."

Marinette drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them as she sighed and said, "Yeah, you know everything at the asylum, I know, but... Don't you have this feeling that you're forgetting something? I remember that Mylene existed, but  _no one knows her_..." Marinette hugged her knees a little tighter as she added, "I don't even think  _I_  know her."

Alya softened up and placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder as she began, "Marinette..."

Just then, Nino walked into the recreation center, and his arrival garnered the attention of the three. Upon seeing them, he waved and said casually, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Ivan shrugged and replied, "Nothing much."

Marinette straightened up, letting her feet rest on the floor again as Alya added, perking up at the sight of Nino, "You just missed Kim's most recent dare. He and Alix were scaling the outside of this building, it was  _insane_."

Nino's eyes widened in shock as he asked incredulously, "They  _what_?"

Marinette shot Alya a glare and nudged the girl's knee, Alya giving Marinette a sheepish look.

She'd completely forgotten that Nino was a prefect, and that he'd get angry over this sort of stunt. Nevertheless Alya added, "Kim fell off and lost, but Alix made it up to the third floor window. Being small really benefited Alix this time."

Nino groaned in exasperation as he said, "I can't  _believe_  them. They could've gotten themselves killed! I'll need to talk to them."

Ivan then spoke up, "Juleka and Rose are already doing that."

At that, Nino calmed down, giving a nod as he said, "Right, they'll make sure they won't do this again."

Marinette watched Nino carefully. He was usually more easygoing when it came to Kim's dares so long as he wasn't on the receiving end. This time, however, he was furious, and Marinette couldn't help but wonder if he was just as unsettled by the prospect of falling off the side of the building. She met Ivan's eye, and remembered that he, too, had been unsettled by the sight of Kim falling.

Ivan didn't remember Mylene, but maybe Nino did?

Marinette met Nino's eyes and asked him, "Hey, Nino, can I ask you something?"

Nino nodded casually and said, "Sure, what's up?"

This time, Alya nudged Marinette, shaking her head. But, Marinette ignored her in favor of asking Nino, "Do you know Mylene?"

Nino froze. Marinette noticed, and exchanged a look with Alya, who seemed suspicious. Ivan, too, was watching Nino carefully as the prefect replied stiffly, "No. I don't know Mylene. Why'd you ask?"

Marinette was disheartened that Nino had said, "no," but knew that Nino's hesitation was a clue. A clue that Nino knew something.

Ivan looked down, deep in thought, wondering if Mylene had actually existed, and why he didn't remember her if she did. Alya looked between Nino and Marinette curiously, denying Mylene's existence yet curious to get to the bottom of things.

Marinette shook her head in response to Nino's question, "No reason."

Nino nodded curtly and said, "Good, because it'd be best if you'd dropped this."

Marinette was confused at how serious Nino sounded, at how serious he was in making sure that Marinette dropped the issue. Ivan scrunched his face up in thought, wondering if he should listen to Nino's advice, or if there really was something that he was missing.

Alya wearily leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. The girl would've normally wanted to investigate more, but pushed the thought out of her mind. If Nino wanted Marinette to drop it, then Alya would make sure that she'd drop it. No matter how suspicious the whole situation was.

It was Marinette that asked in confusion, " _Why?_ "

Nino's response was, "Some things aren't worth pursuing." He backed away and moved to leave the recreation center again, "I'll see you guys later, I'm gonna go find Felix."

Marinette balled her hands up into fists and said in determination, "He knows something."

Alya put a hand on Marinette's arm and said, "Girl, maybe you should just take a breather. Not everything's shady, you know. Maybe Nino's right."

Marinette raised an eyebrow at Alya and asked, "Since when were you one to turn down an investigation?"

Alya replied in exasperation, "Girl, Mylene isn't real! I would've remembered her if she was!" She looked around to see if anyone was watching them before adding in a low voice, "Besides, this is a little too weird, promise me you'll drop it?"

Alya held out her pinky, and Marinette stared at it before making eye contact with Alya. Marinette realized then that Alya was just trying to look out for her.

But, she couldn't just ignore that feeling, she couldn't just ignore her memory of Mylene.

And so she held out her pinky, too. And the two made a pinky promise.

Marinette's other hand was behind her back, her fingers crossed.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Time goes on. 

It was just another day in the asylum when Marinette was sitting on an armchair in the lounge in the girls’ dorm talking to Alya, who sat on the floor at the foot of the armchair. Alix was sitting near them in the loveseat when Kim, Max, and Ivan walked in, Ivan taking a seat on the couch.

Kim and Max plopped down on either side of Alix on the loveseat, prompting a glare from the girl as she pushed Kim off. Kim simply sat down again on the arm of the loveseat, and Alix adjusted the leather gloves on her hands with a scowl, not letting it show how much she enjoyed the two boys’ company.

Alya was looking at the guys suspiciously, asking, “ _Why_ are you guys here in the girls’ dorm?”

Kim gave Alya a pointed look and said, pointing back to the boys’ dorm with his thumb, “They’re messing around with poetry in there, it’s boring as hell.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow and asked skeptically, “Poetry?”

Max adjusted his glasses and replied, “Yes, poetry. I believe that it began when one of Ivan’s neighbors found a poem that Ivan wrote quite a while ago.”

“And then they just gathered in the lounge and started making poetry?” Alix asked incredulously. “What the hell, guys don’t just do that, they’re _guys_.”

Kim shrugged and replied, “They do when they’re bored, and this place is _boring_.”

Alya looked over at Ivan and asked, “What was your poem about?”

Ivan scratched his head and replied, “It was a love poem I think.” He furrowed his eyebrows in thought before adding, “I don’t even remember writing it. It’s not my thing.”

Alix prodded, “Was it addressed to anyone?”

Marinette perked up and added hopefully, “Like a girlfriend?” At this, Alya sent Marinette a glare that the pigtailed-girl ignored.

Ivan shook his head, “No. It might not even be mine, but it was my handwriting, so I guess I wrote it.” He then said to Marinette as an afterthought, “and I don’t have a girlfriend.” But the way he said it made it seem like he was trying to convince himself, too.

Alya moved to change the subject and instead asked Kim, “So, how are you holding up after that dare yesterday?”

“I’m fine, pretty much got off scot-free.” Kim then winced a bit and said, “Could’ve been a whole lot worse though. They said I was lucky that I landed on my back the way I did. I could’ve broken my leg if I’d fallen feet first, or cracked my skull open if I’d fallen head first.”

That was when Nino walked in and remarked, “And that’s why you don’t climb up the side of a tall building.”

Alya smirked and teasingly asked Nino, “Hey, DJ, how was the poetry?”

“Not as boring as I thought it’d be,” Nino admitted.

Marinette raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really? How many people were there?”

“About ten, though there were a bunch of other people who were just standing around listening to them.”

Alya sent Nino a sly look as she quipped, “And did _you_ share any poetry?”

Nino countered with an, “I sure did: Roses are red / Violets are blue / I’d make an actual poem / but it wasn’t working out, dude.”

That got the group laughing, and Alix made the mistake of pressing her back too far into the love seat she was sitting on, prompting a wince in slight pain.

Kim and Max both noticed, and the former asked, “Whoa, Alix you okay?”

Alix nodded, but the question got the rest of the room worried and Max asked, “How many did Juleka give you?”

Alix was leaning forward, looking at a spot on the ground and resting her arms casually on her knees as she replied frankly, “Well, she said that I deserved fifteen for how stupid the stunt was.”

Jaws dropped in shock and Marinette was taken aback as well, “Fifteen!?”

Alix nodded, sitting up straighter, but not leaning back against the loveseat a she added, “Yeah, but she said she’d go easy on me and give me six.”

Nino raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, “That’s less than half. It’s unlike Juleka to go _that_ nice on someone.”

Alix shot back, annoyed at how he brought it up, “You don’t think I know that?” She scowled as she added, “That’s why I told her not to go easy on me. I don’t like pity.”

Alya blinked, saying slowly in disbelief, “You... told her not to go easy on you…” When Alix nodded, Alya closed her eyes and sighed, rubbing her temples.

Max then asked, “How many did she end up giving you?”

Alix crossed her arms, seemingly still mad, “Eight. She still went easy on me, damn Felix.”

Kim ruffled up her hair affectionately to try and calm some of the girl’s anger as he said sympathetically in slight guilt, “Sorry about not being there with you. I feel really guilty.”

Alix swatted his hand away, yet still let a small smile come across her face as she replied, “Don’t worry about it, it’s all good.”

That last part of what Alix had said before, however, had caught Nino’s attention and he asked, “What do you mean by ‘damn Felix’?”

Marinette then spoke up, saying, “Felix told Juleka to go easy on her, right?”

Alix nodded, “Yeah.” She was bitter as she said, disgruntled, “I know he’s just trying to help, but it pisses me off. I’m short, I’m a girl, and I’m – ugh! I just hate it when people feel like they have to go easy on me.”

Kim patted her shoulder, “Don’t sweat it, Felix probably would’ve told Juleka to go easy on me, too.”

Alix’s mood was still noticeably bitter as she grumbled, “Yeah, but she wouldn’t have gone _that_ easy on you. You’re almost twice my size, and you’re –” she cut herself off, and looked down instead, scowling again.

Kim leaned down with a smirk and asked, “I’m what? Hot? I think you’d be more successful at seducing Juleka.”

Alix responded with a punch to Kim’s shoulder and a sarcastic, “Yeah, right. Don’t be so self-centered, and everyone knows Juleka’s committed.”

“Shortie”

“Dumbbell”

“Chibi”

“Hercules”

“Loudmouth”

Alix seethed, “Loudmouth? I am NOT the loudmouth have you heard yourself talk?”

Marinette, not wanting to let their squabble get too out of control, jumped in with a, “I think we all know who the _real_ loudmouth is – Chloe.”

“Oh, I second that,” Alya interjected.

Alix added a, “God, I fucking hate her, she’s such a bitch.”

Kim scoffed and retorted, “No way, she’s worse than that.”

Nino was distracted, and not truly listening to the conversation anymore. Something struck him about what was said about Felix telling Juleka to go easy on Alix. He backed away slowly towards the doors, and said, “Yeah, I’ll see you guys later, I need to go talk to Felix.” He promptly left the room, a confrontational look on his face that displayed a combination of worry, fury, and confusion.

This piqued the interest of the others, confused as to why Nino abruptly left like that. Marinette, Ivan, and Alya exchanged a glance, thinking about how Marinette was asking before about that Mylene girl, before Alya looked away.

Alya knew she couldn’t deny it – there was a conspiracy of some sort going on, or, at least, some drama that involved Marinette’s delusions about that girl. But this felt too big, something about what was going on felt foreboding – like an eruption waiting to happen… It spelled disaster, and Alya didn’t want to be the reason for its eruption.

 _Mylene wasn’t here_. Alya didn’t know who she was or where she was, but she didn’t care. Alya had a bad feeling about that Mylene, and she didn’t want to get involved. It’d be for the better if they could all just live blissfully unaware like always, but Marinette didn’t think that way, and it made Alya frustrated.

And though Alya was unaware, she was certainly not the only one thinking this way.

Ivan stood up, and moved to follow Nino, “I’m gonna go, too.”

Alix crossed her arms and huffed, “Well, I’m bored.”

Kim then jumped up to his feet and said in excitement, “Hey! I heard they were having a wrestling thing in the rec. center! Let’s go!” He began stretching and then jogged in place a bit as he added, “I’m done sitting for the day.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind coming along to watch,” Max declared. He made eye contact with Alya and Marinette as he asked, “Do you want to come with us?”

Alya shook her head, “Oh, no way. I’m not into wrestling.”

Marinette added with a sheepish smile, “Me neither, but have fun!”

Alix stood up and slowly stretched out her arms a bit as she said, “Well, I’m going.” She relaxed and moved towards the door and said, “Let’s go.”

Max and Kim followed after her, the former asking, “You’re not planning on entering, are you?”

Alix scoffed, “No way, I’m not letting some sweaty guy get their disgusting hands on me.” She then added with a smirk as they walked out the door, “But, I’ll definitely watch so I can see Kim get his ass kicked.”

“Hey! I’m not gonna get my ass kicked, I’m gonna win.”

“Yeah, right, I bet you’ll last two rounds max.”

“You’re on!”

The rest of their conversation faded away, and Marinette and Alya exchanged a knowing smiles, Marinette saying, “I don’t know how they’re still not dating.”

Alya drawled, “I’m surprised one of their arguments hasn’t ended in making out yet.”

A silence ensued. Marinette felt again like something was missing, like Mylene was missing. After just one of them left, everyone else quickly followed, and it felt horribly empty in the lounge. Marinette wasn’t even sure where Ivan had gone. Did he have any hobbies or interests at all? Now, Marinette could only associate Mylene with him, and Marinette felt bad that she didn’t know him well anymore.

In fact, did she know anyone well anymore?

Did Kim and Alix do anything other than compete? Did Max do anything other than hang around them? What did Alya even do anymore besides just socializing? Did Rose, Juleka, and Felix ever do anything besides tend to their prefect duties? Nino always seemed to be distracted nowadays, why was that? Chloe would’ve gone out of her way to flaunt her greatness to everyone before, but now she didn’t seem to do anything besides stay with Sabrina.

And Nathanael… The poor boy desperately needed to keep his anxious hands busy, and Marinette felt as though he could draw in order to do so… It’d be easy to get paper and a pencil, but yet, he didn’t… why?

Alya looked up at Marinette and sighed, knowing what the girl was thinking about. She turned around on her spot on the ground so she’d face Marinette as she said gently, “Girl, you thinking about that Mylene person again?”

Marinette moved her legs so that she was hugging them and resting her forehead on her knees as she said, “Kind of…” She shifted again, curling up on the armchair and resting her chin in her hand as she said with a gradually growing frustration, “I can’t shake this feeling that Mylene _was here_. She was here, I know it! But no one else does, and I don’t get it, and _they_ don’t get it, and _you_ don’t get it. And I-”

“Girl,” Alya softly interrupted her friend. “Even if Mylene had been here, what are you going to do about it? She’s not here right now, and that’s all that matters.” She placed a reassuring hand on Marinette’s knee as she added, “Don’t worry about it, there’s nothing you can do.”

Marinette shook her head, disagreeing with her best friend with all her heart as she said resolutely, “No, that’s not right. There _is_ something I can do. I can, I can ask Nino again, there’s got to be a reason why he’s brooding so much nowadays. And Felix, he always talks to Felix, I bet I could ask him, too! And, if that doesn’t work, I can just look around, there’s got to be something that could shed some light on things.”

Alya looked alarmed and interjected, “You already asked them, it’s not going to work a second time. And, girl, you aren’t gonna go out looking for her, are you? Because that is definitely not a good idea.”

“Ugh, but what else can I do?” Marinette protested. “This is bothering me so much, I _need_ to know what this Mylene thing is all about!”

The two were full on arguing now as Alya retorted, “Well, if you _have_ to do your detective work, how about you stay _inside_ the asylum. Wandering out in the endless forest with _your_ sense of direction isn’t gonna get you anywhere.”

Marinette was getting more and more hotheaded as the argument went on, as she nearly shouted, “Well, if no one’s going to tell me what happened like you said, then what else can I do but find her myself?”

Alya was holding herself back from yelling as she objected, “How do you even know she exists?”

Marinette deflated, but remained firm as she said, “I know she does.”

Alya closed her eyes, sighing, rubbing her forehead briefly before dropping her hand and opening her eyes to stare at the ground.

Marinette continued in a low voice, stubborn and determined, “If they won’t tell me, then I’ll find her. If they won’t let me find her, then I’ll search for clues until I figure this out.” There was a silence before Marinette added as an afterthought, “Felix probably has records somewhere, if I can just find them, then I can figure out where she went.”

Alya cut her off with a steadfast, “What are you going to accomplish by leaving? Or sneaking into the prefects’ offices? Are you trying to return to civilization before your time? Run into humans? Do you think Mylene’s going to be there? All those humans see us as monsters. Leaving is just as pointless as this quest for Mylene. Don’t be stupid, ok? Leave this alone, please.”

Marinette calmed down, listening to Alya and realizing where at part of her concern was from. “I’m not trying to find humans, I just need to find Mylene,” Marinette reassured sincerely. Wondering why her friend was so uncharacteristically against her, she asked, “Why are you so against this? You’re usually so supportive of me.”

Alya made a point to look Marinette in the eyes as she said solemnly, “You’ve got that weird feeling about Mylene. I’ve got this weird feeling that you’ve got a death wish.”

Marinette searched Alya’s gaze, and knew immediately that her friend was being sincere.

She truly had this foreboding feeling in her gut like how Marinette had this feeling that something, that Mylene, was missing.

Marinette appreciated Alya’s concern, she really did.

But, the one thing Marinette wasn’t afraid of was death.

So what if she had a death wish? Everyone was going to die eventually, and if looking for Mylene means moving up her expiration date, then she just needs to do it quickly.

Alya continued gravely, “This isn’t going to end well, at all.”

Marinette replied with a sincere, “Thanks for worrying.” She then added firmly, “But, I don’t care. I need to know. You can’t change my mind.”

Alya reiterated in vain, “ _She doesn’t exist_.”

Marinette stood up and moved to walk out as she said, “I don’t care.”

Alya watched Marinette put on her rain jacket and walk out from her spot on the floor, and flopped down on her back with a frustrated groan. Her friend was too stubborn for her own good.

She then heard Chloe’s haughty voice, “Trouble in paradise?”

Alya drawled in reply, “No way, this place is _not_ a paradise.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

As soon as Marinette stepped outside, the first thing she saw made her want to flip a table, and she seethed as she stormed toward the sight.

Alix, Max, and Kim had evidently taken a detour to the boys’ dorm. Judging by the gym back clutched in Kim’s hand, they’d probably gone in to get his stuff for the wrestling thing. Nino was arguing with Felix in hushed tones several meters away at the back end of the boys’ dorm.

Nathanael had, however, also been evidently making his way back to the boys’ dorm as the three musketeers came out with Kim’s stuff. When they inadvertently crossed paths, the three flinched on cue and Alix started provoking the half-breed.

“Hey, look, it’s the savage. What are you doing out here? Isn’t rain supposed to melt witches like you, or does that misery of yours act like a freak shield? Maybe your hair wasn’t red enough, so you went looking for another victim besides your mom.”

“I-I just need to pass through.”

“ _Pass through us_? What a nice way of asking us permission to stick a knife in our backs, this lunatic’s got manners.”

“Alix, I don’t think reaffirming Nathanael’s identity as a miscreant is necessary.”

“Fuck no, this bastard mutt needs to be put into his place.”

“Alix, everyone knows he’s a freak, let’s get to the wrestling thing already.”

Marinette stormed over to Alix, getting the attention of the other three boys, Kim and Max unfazed but Nathanael looking stunned. She reached over to grab Alix’s arm, with a fierce, “Alix, back off!”

Right as Marinette’s fingers grazed the material of the sleeve of Alix’s rain jacket, the pink-haired girl, wrenched her arm away from Marinette, with an angry shout of, “Don’t touch me!”

The icy glare Alix sent Marinette was enough to cool most of Marinette’s anger and replace it with shock as Alix reiterated in a low voice, “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Marinette let out a deep breath and said a cautious yet sincere, “I’m sorry.”

Alix, previously looking like she could’ve blown up, calmed down when Kim put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, reminding her to take a few deep breaths in and out. Max cleared his throat, and Alix forced herself to say, “Yeah, whatever, thanks for apologizing. Just, don’t do that again.”

“I won’t,” Marinette promised. She could not, however, forget what Alix had said before to Nathanael, and added, “…as long as you don’t harass Nathanael like that again.”

Alix was furious, and she slapped Kim’s hand away as she stormed towards Marinette and shoved her as she said, “What gives you the right to say that, huh? You a new prefect, or something? Think your weird prophecies about rainbow-dreadlocks-girl makes you a god? Fuck off, and stop butting your head into things you don’t understand.”

Marinette stumbled back briefly, but took a step forward with fire in her eyes as she said, “You were yelling at Nathanael like he personally murdered everyone you’ve ever cared about, when he’s done _nothing_ to you. What else is there to understand?”

“I’ll tell you what,” Alix threatened as she moved to tackle Marinette.

Both girls, however, were stopped in their tracks. Kim was holding Alix back, leaving the pink-haired girl kicking and aggressively trying to attack Marinette and tell her just what was up.

Marinette, to her surprise, was stopped by Nathanael, who stood in front of her with his arms out and back to Alix. The redhead looked utterly depressed and anxious, but was resolute in his defense of Alix as he said, “Please stop. I-I really appreciate you trying to help, but there’s really no point. It’s always like this, you wouldn’t understand.”

“But, you can’t just take this!” Marinette protested. He was right, she didn’t understand. Chloe was right, too, Alix had said far worse than the blonde had. Yet here Nathanael was, still defending his bullies. Why? Was he really that used to it? Was he really that used to this torture? How could he stand the oppression?

Nathanael was shaking as he drew his arms in and gave Marinette the most heartbreaking smile she’d ever remembered, “I always have.”

He moved to walk away, but then Alix, who had calmed down by then, threw in one last, “Yeah, go back to where you came from, halfa.”

Upon hearing the slur, Nathanael froze. His body began trembling uncontrollably, and his eyes widened as he brought his hands up to his ears and mumbled, “No, no, no, no, no, mom, I’m sorry! No, no, no, stop! Stop, no, no, no, no. Why!” By now, Nathanael had collapsed down on his knees, his head lowered as far as it could go.

Alix was steely as she watched him collapse, Kim and Max weren’t watching at all.

Marinette, however, was horrified, and she turned on Alix and shouted, “That was uncalled for!”

By then, Nino and Felix had noticed, and there were bystanders staring at the scene. The two had approached them, and Nino knelt down beside Nathanael, helping him stand up and guiding him back to the boys’ dorm.

Felix pulled Marinette back and said, “Alright, that’s enough. You’re lucky Rose and Juleka aren’t here, this would’ve earned both of you ladies a punishment.”

“Me?” Marinette asked incredulously, “But I didn’t do anything!”

Alix scoffed, “Yeah right, this would’ve never been a problem if you hadn’t gotten involved.”

Marinette was stopped from attacking Alix again by Felix, and so she instead said desperately, “Why are you so harsh on Nathanael?”

Alix gave Marinette a hardened look, and said simply, “He gets it.”

The words made Felix’s hands tighten on Marinette’s shoulders, but he was otherwise unfazed. Marinette didn’t understand what that meant. She looked over at Kim and Max, but the two boys were not making eye contact with anyone. She looked back at Felix, but he had a mastered poker face.

The three of them understood what that meant, and, apparently, so did Nathanael. But Marinette felt as though she’d never understand. Why would Nathanael take such abuse from Alix? What was it about Alix that he understood? Why did it warrant abuse for being a corrupt half-breed?

“I don’t get it,” She said.

“I didn’t expect you to,” Felix and Alix said this in unison. And Marinette was thrown off guard, sending Felix a surprised look.

Felix ignored it, and instead motioned towards the recreation center, “Go, the wrestling will start soon.”

Alix sighed, all hostility drained out of her voice as she said, “Right.” She walked over to Kim and Max, and the three of them quietly headed over to the recreation center.

Marinette was left alone with Felix then, and he stepped back. He brought a hand up to his head, as if to quell a headache, and stumbled slightly. Marinette, surprised, helped him steady himself and asked, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Felix replied, eyes closed in waiting out the spell. “I just need some more rest.” He shook it off and instead turned to Marinette and said, “More importantly, keep in mind that some things are better left alone. You’ll never understand Nathanael’s situation like he does, and while I know he appreciates the gesture, I also know that your shouting match with Alix frightened him. Please be cautious from now on.”

It was then that Marinette was reminded again of how she seemed to barely know her friends anymore. Yes, Alix was going too far, but she hadn’t even thought to understand Alix and why she was being mean until after Felix showed up. Running in like that with guns blazing was definitely not the best approach to that situation, especially now that she considered how Nathanael might’ve felt.

She’d just assumed he’d be relieved to have pressure off his shoulders. But he definitely wouldn’t have collapsed from anxiety if she hadn’t gotten Alix angrier, and, for that, she felt guilty.

Marinette sighed, this was too much. First Mylene, then Nathanael, then Nino, then Alya, and now Alix. There was too much going on.

She looked back up at Felix and replied with a sheepish smile, “I’ll try.”

“Thank you,” Felix said softly. He then moved to walk to the boys’ dorm. Marinette watched, and was surprised to see that Nino was back outside, leaning against the doors of the boys’ dorm. He was supposedly waiting for Felix, but the way his arms were crossed and how he was glaring at her with a warning in his eyes was unsettling for Marinette.

She turned back towards the girls’ dorm, but then remembered that Alya had been there.

Alix, Kim, and Max were in the recreation center, too…

She then looked over at the fence that separated the forest from the asylum, expecting to see an empty fence that she could lean against. She was instead surprised to see Rose and Juleka there, backs toward Marinette and huddled around a spot in the fence.

Marinette approached, curious. When she got close enough, however, Juleka snapped to attention and whirled around, facing Marinette. The pig-tailed girl stopped in her tracks, taken aback. She awkwardly smiled and said, “Uh… hi.”

Juleka monotonously replied, “Hi.” She stayed close to Rose’s side, shielding the short-haired girl from Marinette’s view whilst holding an umbrella over both their heads.

With one last clang Rose stepped away from the fence and moved to stand next to Juleka and asked Marinette with a chiding, “What are you doing all the way over here?”

“Uh…” Marinette stumbled. Not knowing what to say now that she was speaking to the intimidating prefects. Remembering her argument with Alya, however, it occurred to Marinette that she hadn’t yet asked Rose or Juleka about Mylene. “I-I was just wondering if you knew anything about a girl named Mylene?”

Rose and Juleka exchanged a look that Marinette couldn’t read, before Juleka stated, “It’s raining pretty hard now, you should be getting back inside.”

Marinette blinked in surprise, “But-but what about Mylene? Do you know where she is? No one else knows her, and she isn’t around!”

“Well, there’s your answer,” Rose replied, her voice sweet as usual, but also hardened, clearly indicating that there was no more discussion to be had.

Rose and Juleka were the strictest prefects. There would be nothing else Marinette could get from them, not unless she wanted her back to be decorated.

But Marinette stood there a little longer in silence with the two prefects. The rain fell against her rain jacket, and Marinette watched as the droplets ran down her jacket sleeve.

She’d been so heated when arguing with Alya, so determined to find out more. But, now that she had the chance, she was faltering. She supposed there must’ve been a way to ask Rose and Juleka for information without making them suspicious.

But Marinette didn’t have that kind of skill.

So, she instead asked the prefects absentmindedly, “Why is it always raining here?”

“Because someone froze time so that it’s always like this,” Juleka deadpanned.

“Wait, really??” Marinette was surprised, with how serious Juleka always sounded, there was no telling whether it was true or not. If it was true, it’d be horrifying. Living forever, trapped in time? That was no way to live, it was unnatural. People live with the goal of making the most of their lives before they died.

What meaning to life was there if there was no time? If one lived eternally?

None.

“I was being sarcastic” Juleka deadpanned.

“Oh…” Another awkward silence ensued, and Marinette looked over at the spot in the fence Rose had been fiddling with, and was surprised to see a padlock and several chains keeping the door shut.

The padlock, however, was on the _other_ side of the fence.

“What were you doing over there with the fence?” Marinette asked, genuinely curious.

“Making sure it was secure,” Rose replied. It was mostly true, and so Marinette believed it… Mostly.

“That’s a padlock right? Why’s it on the outside?” Marinette inquired, wondering just why a padlock would be on the outside, where anyone could approach and try to crack it.

“So no one escapes,” Rose explained. “It’s impossible to reach from inside. And, the asylum is isolated enough so there is no danger of anyone on the outside cracking it. We want to make sure everyone here is safe.”

Marinette bit her lip. The fence was tall. The openings in the fence were too small for anything except maybe an ant to fit through. It was secure, they were safe… Mostly.

Though she wasn’t sure if she’d receive an answer, Marinette asked anyway, “What’s the code to the padlock?”

“Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero.” Juleka supplied in her usual monotone voice and straight face.

Marinette blinked in surprise, “Wait what?” 0000 was a horrible code, _anyone_ could solve that.

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Oh…”

Rose, however, then gave Marinette a blank look, a warning in her eyes as she said, “Zero is the probability that Mylene actually exists.”


	3. Chrysalis Teachings

 

 

> _Young akuma without exception welcome the chrysalis, which is the same thing as puberty for humans._
> 
> _But akuma who enter chrysalis experience very unstable emotions far more severe than what humans experience. Such unstable akuma have entered into countless fights with humans in the past as a result._
> 
> _And so the Council created facilities to separate adolescent akuma from everyone else._
> 
> _In the asylums, akuma with severe symptoms pass their time in adolescence until they grow up into proper adults._
> 
> _The daily medicine is what suppresses these symptoms, so don’t go without it._

* * *

 

The mess hall’s first floor consisted of the offices for ordering items, and sorting them when they arrived. The first floor was also home to the infirmary on the north end and the kitchens on the south end. The kitchen was where the food and medicine was received and prepared.

The food was sent to the second and third floors. Which were the homes of the cafeterias in which the akuma would eat.

The second floor was home to the cafeterias for the young akuma younger than 13.

The third floor contained the cafeterias for the akuma patients that were aged 14 or older.

During meal time, everyone in the asylum would gather in the mess hall and report to the proper cafeteria for their age group. Once there, they’d go to the buffet line, and grab a tray, their dose of medicine, a glass of water, the meal of the day, the fruit of the day, and the dessert of the day.

Nathanael sat at a table in the back with seven others, all of them pointedly ignoring Nathanael and each other. Their table was dead silent.

Marinette, Alya, Kim, Max, Alix, Chloe, Sabrina, and Ivan sat at a table together like usual. Each had a sandwich, an apple, a glass of water, their medicine, and a cookie on their trays. Chloe had wordlessly tossed her cookie towards Kim’s tray. She didn’t talk to anyone other than Sabrina with the exception of the occasional insult. Sabrina followed her example.

Meal time was also the time where the prefects held their lessons. For younger akuma, the lessons were mostly about the history and mythology of akuma, the specifics of being an akuma, and how they should be acting. The older akuma also had lessons about general history, economics, mathematics, politics, languages, art, music, and really anything they could think of.

The lesson for their age group that day was being taken care of by Juleka and Rose. Nino was on the second floor teaching the younger akuma, and Felix was taking care of things in the kitchen as usual.

The lesson itself was on genetics.

An akuma girl with absurdly long white hair and strangely bright magenta skin had her hand raised and asked the two prefects aggressively, “How the hell does genetics play into the fact that I have fucking pink skin as an akuma?”

At that, Sabrina, speaking without any sort of prompt from Chloe for once, also raised her hand and eagerly asked in her soft voice, “Oh! Yeah, I want to know that, too! Everyone else at my table has normal skin and hair, but mine are purple! And my parents were both akuma, too, and they _did not_ have purple skin or hair.”

Max looked almost offended as he said to Sabrina, “ _I_ have purple skin as well.”

“Yeah, but your hair is normal,” Sabrina pointed out.

Rose ignored Max’s comment and responded to the questions, “Those are great questions, Eveline and Sabrina.” She herself had olive-green-tainted skin, pink hair, and while her pupils were a natural blue, the whites of her eyes were pink instead. As a result, she could relate to their insecurities about their strange appearances.

Rose explained, “Our superpowers come from our insecurities and personality, and our emotions themselves are heightened as akuma. The rest of our existence is dictated by our personality, and so our appearances are, too.”

Eveline retorted with an outraged, “That’s fucking stupid! How the hell does my personality determine my akuma skin color? It’s fucking magenta. I hate magenta. Isn’t there some kind of science behind it? And _please_ get the medicine to make it go back to normal, because I fucking hate this color.”

“The fact that you hate magenta so much probably has something to do with it.” Juleka deadpanned from beside Rose, taking a break from eating her meal. Juleka’s skin was white, and her long amaranth-colored hair fell around her shoulders. She, too, could relate to Eveline’s insecurities.

Before Eveline could start arguing with Juleka, Rose jumped in to explain, “It really is a matter of what you were thinking or feeling subconsciously when you were akumatized. Like, for example, I’ve always liked the color pink, and my insecurities at the time of my akumatization had to do with this pink perfume bottle I had. Thus my pink hair.”

“It could really be anything you’re thinking about when you’re akumatized,” Juleka added. “I’m really into steampunk stuff, hence my fashion sense, but then I had this thought in the back of my head about kabuki dancers and medieval fashion when I was akumatized and it influenced my akuma form.”

“If you want science, it’s been proven that certain species of butterflies are more likely to induce a change in skin, hair, or eye colors.” Rose supplied.

Sabrina looked ready to interject, but Rose quickly addressed the topic she knew she was going to ask about, “Also, babies that are born akuma take time to develop their akuma traits. Their personality, the very essence of every akuma, is not yet developed at that stage and they can still reject or change certain traits inherited from their parents during that time. It all comes down to what kind of personality or insecurities they begin to develop.”

Juleka continued, addressing Sabrina, “As your personality and akuma traits were developing, purple may have had some sort of emotional significance to you at that time that’s lost on you now, Sabrina. Most likely, the color purple was associated with your developing insecurities and so your skin and hair are purple.”

Sabrina blinked, and then sat down, “Oh, ok.”

Eveline interjected calmly with undertones of a stirring rage, “So, you’re saying that because you had this little thought about kabuki dancers, and that made you the white-skinned pink-haired thing you are now?”

“Yeah,” Juleka deadpanned, as if it were supposed to be obvious. “I was insecure about now being noticed, and so that thought influenced my appearance, which I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

Eveline scoffed, sat down, crossed her arms, and grumbled under her breath, “Bullshit.” Beside her, Gerald patted her back to calm her, but she slapped his hand away.

Rose then clapped her hands together once and announced, “Alright, then. I think that concludes today’s lesson! Let’s all take our medicine now.”

With that, Rose picked up the dose of medicine on her tray, Juleka and the rest of the room following suit. She held it up in front of her face, and the rest of the room followed suit. She counted down from three, and then everyone in the room took their medicine all at once, chasing it down with water.

After swallowing the medicine, Rose cleared her throat and put her unfinished glass of water back on the tray as she said, “Alright, as usual, those of you unfinished with your meals can stay, otherwise you’re free to leave!”

As a large number of akuma started standing up to leave, another thought occurred to Rose and she added, “Oh, and for the ladies on birth control, the next shipment of pills has finally arrived! We sincerely apologize for the delay. They’re available for pick-up in office number 5 as of right now, or Felix will have it delivered to your room by sunset.”

“Ugh, finally!” Chloe exclaimed. She stood up, balanced her tray with her unfinished food in one hand and grabbed Sabrina’s wrist with the other and said, “C’mon, Sabrina, let’s go.”

“Wait, I’m not done yet!” Sabrina stumbled after Chloe, reaching out longingly for her unfinished sandwich, which sat on the tray back at the table.

Alya sighed and stood up, taking both her tray and Sabrina’s and said, “I gotta go to that office, too. See you guys later.”

Marinette offered a wave and a small, almost awkward, smile and said, “See you later.” Alya nodded in response, but as soon as she had turned her back to them, Marinette slumped down in her seat with a sigh.

She and Alya weren’t fighting per se, but were on uneasy terms. Marinette was getting antsy, and she just wanted to find out what happened to Mylene. Alya, and nearly everyone else for that matter, wanted her to just drop it.

But she couldn’t, and Alya understood that. So, Marinette and her friend had worked out an unspoken agreement: Marinette didn’t bother Alya about the issue, and Alya wouldn’t bother her to stop it. Marinette had slipped up once or twice, and Alya had gotten mad and told her, again, to drop it. But, other than those instances, they were still friends.

They were just on shaky ground at the moment.

Kim stood up from his seat as well and said, “Well, I’m going over to the rec. center to shoot some hoops with Gerald and Rudolph.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow, “Gerald AND Rudolph? Those two are _not_ chummy, and Gerald is completely incapable at throwing. How’d you convince them to play with you?”

Kim rubbed his hands together with a devious smirk as he said, “It’s a bet. They win, I give whoever got more points advice for their love problems. I win, they have to do something for me.”

Ivan scoffed as he took his time finishing his food, “That’s not going to end well.”

Max then said, “And that is precisely why Kim wants to do it.”

“Hell yeah,” Kim said, the smirk still ever present on his face. He then asked the others, “Any of you wanna come with?”

Ivan gave a curt, “No.”

Marinette, however, was curious as to how this would go, and said, “I’ll come! It’s only three of you right now, right? That means I can join in!”

Kim raised an eyebrow, “And what do you want?”

Marinette gave a playful smirk of her own and said, “To play basketball.” She stood up, picked up her tray, and said, “C’mon, let’s go!”

Kim and Max exchanged a glance, shrugged, and then simultaneously stood up and grabbed their trays. As Max followed after Marinette, Kim stay behind briefly to ask Alix, “You gonna join us later?”

Alix was eating her apple as painstakingly slow as possible and replied with a gloomy, “Nah. I’m gonna go hit up the skate ramps instead.”

Kim nodded knowingly and said, “OK, see you later.” With that, he left the cafeteria, dropping off his tray with the others before he left.

With Kim’s departure, only a handful of akuma remained, most of them, like Alix, were purposely eating their food as slowly as possible.

Juleka and Rose could finally relax, and they both sat down with a tired sigh and started to properly eat their food.

Ivan ended up finished his food before the others, and, after saying bye to Alix, got up and walked to the front of the room to drop his tray off with the others.

As he did so, Nino walked through, and collapsed on a chair beside Rose and Juleka in exhaustion and complained, “Oh god, those kids are such a handful. Why do I always have to take care of them during meals?”

Juleka deadpanned, “Because you’re bad at teaching.”

Nino gave a finger pistol in her direction and replied, “That’s true.” He then saw Ivan standing nearby, who was looking at him strangely, and the sky-blue-skinned aspiring DJ asked casually, “Hey, Ivan, what’s up?”

Something then occurred to Nino and he added, genuinely curious, “Hey, why’re you always hanging out here afterwards? You know you don’t have to like _they_ do.” As he said that he vaguely gestured to the rest of the room, where a few akuma were left sitting, including Alix and Nathanael, all of them eating their food slowly in an almost sad silence.

Ivan blinked, and thought about it for a moment before shrugging, in indifference, “I don’t know. It’s just a thing I’ve been doing I guess.” At that, Ivan noticed that Nino appeared to be more suspicious, and, though they seemed to be engrossed in finishing their meal, Juleka and Rose were also listening closely to their conversation.

Marinette had asked him more than once about whether he remembered this Mylene person, and each time he’d said no because he genuinely didn’t know.

And it was still true. Colorful dreadlocks? Scared of being called a monster? Fear complex? Short and chubby and shy? Pink headband? Their age? His _girlfriend_? He didn’t remember anyone like that.

But, Marinette kept insisting that Mylene existed somehow, and that she knew because of this feeling she had that something was missing. Ivan had never had such a feeling.

That was… until that moment when Kim had fallen off the side of the recreation center during that dare he did with Alix.

He’d gotten that feeling that he was forgetting something. It might not be the same feeling as Marinette’s feeling that something was missing, but the fact that he’d even thought he’d forgotten something important at all was troubling. He’d genuinely feared for Kim’s life when he’d fallen.

Had Ivan seen someone else fall like that? He swore he had, but couldn’t remember anything about it.

It was just a feeling, but… Maybe he shouldn’t dismiss it just yet.

Ivan then felt Nino’s piercing gaze, like it was analyzing him, judging him, suspicious of him. It threw Ivan off, and he was reminded of the moment in the rec. center when Nino had told Marinette to give up, and of the moment in the girls’ dorm when he’d left abruptly.

Nino knew something, and he knew that Ivan had started getting that feeling that something was missing.

He definitely shouldn’t dismiss that feeling, he needed to try remembering that something that he’d forgotten. In a rare show of uncertainty, Ivan said breathlessly with the weight of his new mission on his shoulders, “I forgot something important… I-I need to go.”

Nino held back a groan of frustration and anger, and ignored the way Rose and Juleka seemed to be glaring at him despite the fact that neither of them were looking in their direction.

The room was deadly silent, and Ivan stood there for a moment longer despite having said he’d needed to go. Juleka then deadpanned, “Do you need our permission to leave? You’ve been standing there for a long time already, you know.”

Nino ignored Juleka and instead said to Ivan, “Don’t think about it too much. Some things are better left unknown.”

The words struck Ivan, and he had this gut feeling that it was imperative that he listened to Nino.

But his heart was telling him that Marinette was on to something. That he had something that he needed to remember. That he did, in fact, need to think about it a little more.

Ivan opened his mouth to protest, but, before he could, the door fell open, and Felix stumbled into the room, the blonde nearly collapsing onto the ground as he said, “Oooh, it hurts!”

Ivan caught the prefect before he fell and said, “Whoa, you ok?”

Felix nodded weakly, and seemed to be out of breath as he said, lightheaded, “Yeah, it’s just my anemia acting up again.” He tried to shake some of the fatigue off, and stepped back from Ivan. He smiled sheepishly and said, “Sorry about that, I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”

Rose shook her head, “No, nothing at all.” She added in concern, “But, you really ought to take better care of yourself, Felix. You’re wearing yourself out too much, and you know that your anemia’s pretty bad.”

Felix had his eyes closed, trying to collect himself, as he said, “I know, Rose, I will.”

Juleka then shot Rose a look, and the short-haired girl nodded, and took a note out of one of her pockets, holding it out to False whilst saying mysteriously, “Here, it’s a note from the boss, about recent events.”

It was a small note, and it was placed in a little envelope that was decorated enough for it to look really important. It also noticeably had a few drops of rain on it, and a strange scent coming off of it. Perfume?

Felix opened his eyes and looked at the note curiously for just a brief second before casually taking it with a laid back, “Right, right, thank you, Rose.” He stuffed it into his pocket as if it were a gum wrapper.

Felix, seemingly having composed himself for the time being, then turned to Ivan and said, “Hey, you were headed back to the boys’ dorm, right? I’ll come with you, I could use a nap.”

That elicited a groan from Nino as he complained, “That means _I’m_ on dish duty!”

Felix chuckled and replied, “Hey, I’ve always been doing it otherwise, and, you know there are always other akuma helping me out in the kitchen. They’ll be there, too.”

Nino simply grumbled under his breath and walked out the door to get back to work.

Ivan watched him as he left, noticing that Nino had been oddly silent when Felix had entered the room.

Felix was watching Ivan, and seemed to be able to read him perfectly, as if he knew exactly what he was thinking, “Are you thinking about something?”

Ivan was aware of how Alix, Nathanael and the few others were still in the room, and how Rose and Juleka were listening to their every word. Felix also had this intimidating air about him, and that prevented Ivan from saying his true feelings.

Something else, however, occurred to Ivan and he asked carefully, “Aren’t you tired of being a prefect? It must be hard taking care of everyone else and then worrying about yourselves, too. You all look run-down.”

Juleka huffed, and resisted rubbing at her eyes tiredly, knowing there were prominent dark circles under them, and said shortly, “We manage.”

Rose nodded and placed a reassuring hand on her girlfriend’s arm and added, “That’s why we appreciate it so much when other akuma help us out.”

Felix then said to Ivan gently, “Come on, let’s leave them to their meal.”

As Ivan and Felix walked out of the room, Rose and Juleka both rapidly finished their meal. Downing the rest of her water, Juleka placed her tray with the others, Rose following suit. Juleka then walked back behind the buffet table where the akuma had picked up their trays in the first place, and retrieved a tray that was filled entirely with different sized doses of medicine in needles.

As Juleka began sanitizing and preparing them, Rose announced to Alix, Nathanael, and the few akuma left in the room, “Alright, it’s time for your second dose. If all of you akumatized half-breeds are done, you can go ahead and take your tray up and start forming a line to get your individualized medicine.”

Alix was the first to stand up and get in line. Nathanael trailed after the others.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

As Ivan and Felix walked back to the dorm, Ivan made sure to zip up his rain jacket and pull the hood up to shield himself from the rain. Beside him, Felix had his rain jacket zipped up, too, but kept the hood down to let the rain drops touch his hair.

Ivan was now acutely aware of this feeling in the back of his mind, nagging at him to try and remember… something.

He thought about what Marinette kept on insisting. Did he really have a girlfriend?

Ivan contemplated on his relationships with the others, wondering how Mylene could’ve fit into it all if she’d actually been real. He tolerated Kim, and Max was relatively friendly enough. Ivan, like most others, hated Chloe, but he didn’t really have an opinion on Sabrina either way. Alya was nice enough, and he considered Marinette to be his friend.

Of the prefects, Ivan knew the ones his age the best: Rose, Juleka, Felix, and Nino. Rose and Juleka, however, hardly socialized with the others anymore, and Felix was often too busy to do so, but did the best he could. Nino used to hang out with them a lot, and he used to be nice enough, but now he seemed to be just as busy as the others.

Out of all of them, Alix was probably the person he was closest to now, but Ivan couldn’t remember how they became friends in the first place.

Now that he thought about it, Ivan wasn’t sure why he had any friends at all. He wasn’t a very sociable person, preferring to be on his own. But he found himself hanging around the others and loitering around the girls’ dorm as if it were something he’d done all the time.

As if he were good friends with all of them.

But… how? Nowadays, Ivan wasn’t even sure why he kept on going back to the girls’ dorm. Had there been someone there that he’d visited on a regular basis? Had they been such good friends that he’d made a point to visit her in her dorm?

It wasn’t Rose, Juleka, Marinette, Alix, Alya, Chloe, Sabrina, or any of the other girls here, Ivan was sure of that.

So… Maybe Mylene had existed, and that was why he was in their friend group? Why he kept on going back to the girls’ dorm?

Ivan sighed and rubbed his forehead as he thought about it more. Despite having that feeling, and trying to remember, he just couldn’t picture this Mylene person in his head. He couldn’t think of what her voice would’ve been like. Couldn’t picture what she’d been like.

He couldn’t remember her at all.

But… he felt like he should.

Ivan was broken out of his thoughts when Felix remarked, “Uh, Ivan? The boys’ dorm is this way.”

Ivan blinked, and realized that he’d been unconsciously walking in the direction of the girls’ dorm, and quickly walked back over to Felix to go to the boys’ dorm.

Felix watched him carefully, and asked, “Why do you keep on going back to the girls’ dorm?”

Ivan shrugged, having a feeling it had to do with Mylene, but still wasn’t able to remember who she was, “Don’t know.”

Felix patted Ivan’s shoulder and reassured, “Well, don’t worry about it, either way. I can tell you’ve been thinking about it too much. You need to relax and get your head out of the clouds.”

Ivan remained stoic, his arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed in thought, “I guess.” He sighed and considered Felix’s words. He really was starting to get a headache. Maybe Felix was right, and he was thinking about it too much.

Ivan changed the subject, knowing that talking to Felix about his thoughts wouldn’t yield results. He spotted the letter sticking out of its cage in Felix’s pocket and asked, “Aren’t you going to open that letter? If it’s from the director of the asylum, then it’s gotta be important.”

By then, the two had already walked through the doors of the boys’ dorm, and stood in its lobby. Felix took the letter from the director out and said casually, “Oh, this? It’s not important, I wasn’t going to read it anyway.”

Ivan was appalled, but it didn’t show much on his face as he said calmly, “It’s from the director, the boss, the president of the asylum. He doesn’t ever show up, so wouldn’t a letter from him be really important?”

Felix shrugged with a smug smirk on his face as he said, “Hey, if the boss actually had anything important to tell us prefects, he’d do it directly. Besides, I know for a fact that this doesn’t have anything important in it.”

“But, it’s from the director, he’s _in charge of the asylum_.”

 “Well, what if the director was actually… a monster!” Felix said with a teasing smirk, wheeling around at the last part in a half-assed attempt to scare Ivan that clearly hadn’t worked.

Ivan instead glared at Felix, the word “monster” had struck a chord with him, in the wrong way. The word had emotional significance for him, the bad kind, not only for himself, but also for… someone else? Someone that he was forgetting? Mylene?

Either way, Ivan deadpanned, “Don’t even joke about that.” The director was not, could not, and would not be a monster. It just simply wasn’t an option for him.

Nobody deserved to be called a monster. But, if they were bad enough to be one, there was just no way that they could be so close.

No way.

Felix held his hands up in mock surrender and said, fighting a smile off his face in vain, “Alright, alright I’ll stop.” He and Ivan then began walking through the lobby of the boys’ dorm, turning to walk through one of the hallways.

At one point, Felix had started ripping the envelope from the director, and Ivan’s eyes widened in shock as he exclaimed, “What are you doing? That’s from the director!”

Felix simply chuckled and tossed the scraps of paper onto the ground behind him, patting Ivan on the shoulder as he stopped in front of the door to his room, “Relax, it’s fine. It wasn’t important anyway.” He then sobered up and said more seriously in concern, “But, you should really take a nap, you look like you’ve got a headache from all this overthinking.”

Ivan sighed, “Yeah, whatever, I guess.” He turned around to walk towards the stairwell to head up to his own room.

As Ivan walked away, Felix took out his keys and opened up the door to his room. As soon as he was inside, Felix collapsed, not even it to the bed before he finally passed out from fatigue due to his anemia.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Outside, in the hallway, an akuma boy was walking past when he saw scraps of paper on the ground.

“Ugh, I hate it when people litter.”

He picked up the pieces of paper. Some of them were thicker and had a design on them, indicating that they used to be an envelope.

The akuma boy shuffled through the pieces of paper as he walked to the lobby.

They were all blank, not a drop of ink on them at all. Nothing that indicated that any sort of writing utensil had even touched it, though it smelled as though there were perfume sprayed on it.

The boy shrugged, and threw the papers into the trash can.


	4. Illusionary, Bewitching Innocence

 

> _It was there that they lived in happiness, like a dream from which there is no waking._
> 
> _They laughed without ever knowing sadness, like a dream from which there is no waking._
> 
> _As modestly as nuns, they frolic, then become tired and sleep… dreaming within a dream._
> 
> _It’s a cycle, the Samsara, the Ouroboros._
> 
> _Remain pure and ignorant of fear so that darkness can never take hold in your heart._
> 
> _Remain pure even if it were a false light._

* * *

 

Marinette sat in her room on the fourth floor of the girls’ dorm. Both the boys’ and the girls’ dorms had 5 floors. The first floor housed the younger kids and the head prefects. The upper levels housed the older students.

Marinette had a large roll of cloth cut into a rectangle, which she’d taken from her sewing room in the recreation center, laid out on the floor of her room. She was writing on it with a fabric marker. Along the left edge of the fabric, she’d written the floor numbers of the girls’ dorm. In each row after the floor numbers she’d listed the room numbers in each of the floors. It was a makeshift diagram of the girls' dorm. 

The great majority of the room numbers were crossed out, but there were still many that weren’t crossed out. Those had been circled. There were also quite a few that had been circled, but were then crossed out.

Marinette had been checking each and every room in the girls’ dorm to see where Mylene could’ve lived.

She’d been at this for a while now, knocking on doors and checking to see if anyone was inside. Almost each time she did, the person who answered was mildly annoyed at being disturbed.

But Marinette was determined to find Mylene, or at least some clue about her.

She’d made sure to check in at different times each day, during as many different times as possible. If someone didn’t answer, then they either weren’t home…

…or it was an empty room that Mylene could’ve inhabited.

In between days where she’d check the girls’ dorm, Marinette would go through the recreation center, trying to see if anyone there had seen Mylene, or checking for a clue about Mylene.

She always came up empty, and, by now, people were really starting to get annoyed with Marinette’s persistence.

They just wanted to have fun, enjoy themselves in the boring asylum, but Marinette kept bursting their bubble with something that they didn’t care about.

Marinette still hadn’t asked Nino or checked the mess hall yet.

With the offices in the mess hall, and how weirdly broody Nino was being, they were the most likely to hold clues to where Mylene was.

But, truth be told, Marinette was intimidated by the prospect of looking through the mess hall.

Marinette, like most other patients, never went into the mess hall unless it was for meal time and medicine time, to order something, or because she got hurt.

The only people who ever went into the mess hall for reasons other than those were either prefects, or had asked the prefects for jobs to do because they were bored.

Marinette could, hypothetically, feign asking for a job to have an excuse to really look through the mess hall… But, Felix was always busy, Rose and Juleka were always either busy or too caught up in each other, and Nino had been trying his hardest to ignore everyone except for when he was taking care of the younger kids or arguing with the other prefects.

And, the other prefects were simply too intimidating for Marinette to approach, she didn’t know them all that well.

Marinette sighed and looked over her table of room and floor numbers. There were 10 circled rooms on the sixth floor, four on the fifth floor, only one on the third floor, three on the second floor, and five on the first floor.

Marinette logically knew that it’d be stupid to check the sixth, second and first floors, because Mylene was in _her_ age group, and those floors all housed people who were too old or too young.

But, she couldn’t overlook _anything_. What if Mylene was hiding in one of the empty rooms on the other floors? Marinette had to check to make sure.

On her floor, the fourth floor, it was just rooms 15 and 25 that didn’t have anyone answer the door no matter what time Marinette checked. Those two rooms were her first priority, since they were the rooms Mylene was most likely to be in.

Marinette decided that today, if the people behind those two doors didn’t answer, she’d find a way to pick the lock and go in anyway.

She just needed to check.

Marinette looked around for a bobby pin, and managed to find a few. She tucked them into her pocket, grabbed her room key, and walked out into the hallway and towards room 15.

Oddly enough, it had been Alya who taught her how to pick locks.

It’d been because Alya had been huge about gossip, but not false gossip. True gossip, Alya had once been so stuck on finding out the truth that she’d get herself into dangerous situations. Marinette was always the one to caution her.

The irony was that now, it was the other way around.

Alya wasn’t so huge on finding out the truth anymore. Now, she was more indifferent, especially when it came to Mylene.

Alya was convinced that Mylene was nothing more than a fake of some kind and that Marinette wouldn't succeed if she tried to go digging deeper.

Thus, this time, she was the one cautioning Marinette from getting too carried away with finding the truth, and it was weird and uncharacteristic of her.

Marinette stopped in front of door 15, and moved her hand up to knock, when she heard someone approaching with a sigh. Marinette turned to see that Alya was now standing near her. She had her arms crossed and was looking at her disapprovingly, as if she were disappointed, with an underlying tone of being upset.

Alya uncrossed her arms as she said, “Girl, are you still going through _all_ the rooms in the dorm? How far has that diagram of yours gone in your room? How many times have you knocked on all the damn doors? Girl, you’re getting too obsessed. Trust me, with this kind of thing, I’d know.”

Marinette then retorted in frustration, “But, I have to know for sure if she ever lived here, and the only way to find out is to check the rooms! And the prefects insist that there is no master key, so I have to check it the old fashioned way, and I _have to know for sure_.”

“You’re getting too obsessed over this, and it isn’t going to end well,” Alya reiterated, her voice entirely serious and grave. Alya clasped her hands together as she nearly pleaded, “Everyone else is able to live just fine without knowing. They’re having fun, and why can’t you do the same? _Please_ , drop it.”

Marinette sighed, and started to respond, “Alya-”

She was interrupted, however, when someone shouted, “HEY, Alya!”

Alya turned to see Alix approaching with a mischievous smile on her face, Kim and Max trailing her with similar expressions on their faces.

Alya raised an eyebrow and asked plainly, “What?”

Alix, leather gloves covering her hands as always, grabbed onto the sleeve of Alya’s shirt with a smirk and tugged on it, saying, “I heard you’re pretty good at fighting.”

“Kind of? I’m not bad, but it’s not like it’s something I do all the time.” Alya replied, looking over at the three stooges warily. She exchanged a look with Marinette, the pigtailed girl shrugging helplessly.

Alix grinned and said, “ _Perfect_. Come on, they’ve got a martial arts thing down there today. It’s in partners, and you’re with me. We’re gonna beat Kim to the dust, it’s gonna be great.” She started dragging Alya down the hallway by pulling on her sleeve, careful not to touch Alya’s actual arm at all, not even through the sleeve.

Alya blinked in surprise, “Wait what? I _never_ agreed to this. Hold up, Alix, could you stop?” When Alya finally wrenched her sleeve away from Alix, Kim walked up behind her and started pushing Alya away from Marinette and towards the stairs. Max leisurely followed behind them.

Alya turned around to Marinette and mouthed, “Help me.” Marinette giggled at the scene, and simply waved at her friend, mouthing, “Sorry, have fun!” Alya playfully stuck her tongue out at Marinette before grudgingly turning around and walking voluntarily with the trio.

Marinette turned back to the door, glad that Alix’s interruption inadvertently prevented another argument between Alya and Marinette, and that it also gave her the chance to check rooms 15 and 25 for clues about Mylene.

Marinette knocked on the door. When no one answered, she looked outside to see how bright it was, confirming that she’d checked at a time that she hadn’t checked before.

This room truly must’ve been empty, and was thus a legitimate candidate for harboring a clue about Mylene.

Marinette knelt down and started trying to pick the lock to the room, when she was interrupted again. This time, it was a male voice asking incredulously, “ _What_ are you _doing_?

Marinette rapidly stood up and turned around, knowing that it looked really bad. After all, she was technically trying to break into someone else’s room. She was surprised to see Nino there, holding a large paper bag filled with packages. He was most definitely delivering them to the people who’d ordered them.

An awkward smile crossed Marinette’s face, and she stuttered trying to flounder for an excuse. She knew that, as a prefect, and as someone who was rather moody lately, that Nino would be furious with such an act and could possibly tell Rose and Juleka, which would not end well for Marinette.

She also knew that if she said it was to find Mylene, that he’d be even angrier.

“Uh… I was, uh. Just, uh, trying to check in on one of my friends! And-and they, uh, gave me permission! To break into their room if they, uh, couldn’t answer! Yeah.”

Nino blinked, not buying it at all, and deadpanned, “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Marinette sighed and conceded, “OK, I’ve been checking the rooms in the girls’ dorm to see if any of them had a clue to Mylene.”

Despite trying to keep his facial expression blank, the way Nino spoke was grave, as if he were breaking the news to Marinette that someone she loved had died, “Why? I’m telling you, she’s not real.”

Marinette crossed her arms sternly, not convinced at all as she retaliated with a, “Well, you and I both know that that’s not true. She was here, I know it.”

“Well, no one else except for you cares about whether or not she’s real. So what if she is? So what if she isn’t? It’s not going to change anything in the end.”

But Marinette wasn't going to listen to Nino's warning. She couldn’t stand not knowing what the situation with Mylene was all about, it was driving her crazy. _She had to know_.

Marinette was about to retaliate with how ignorance wasn’t bliss and how people deserved to know the truth…

But.

Nino continued, sounding entirely solemn and serious, “Don’t start butting into things you don’t understand. Sometimes, being ignorant is better than knowing the truth. Sometimes, just knowing the truth can drive you crazy. Are we the only crazy ones? Mylene? You? Me? Ivan? You may be hungry for the truth, but it's better to stay innocent. This is like a dream you shouldn't wake up from.”

Nino took a step closer to Marinette, and she was struck by how serious and morose the normally relaxed DJ sounded, “…It’s better not to know.”

Marinette took a step back from Nino, and was surprised when her back hit the door of room 15.

From down the hall, Nathanael, having come to the girls’ dorm in search of the package Nino was supposed to deliver to him, watched the scene, shaking with a deeply rooted feeling of doom and jealousy.

Nino was going to ruin everything.

Marinette… she deserved _better_.

Nino had to stay away from Marinette. Sweet, kind, sincere, beautiful Marinette.

Marinette had been so kind to Nathanael, but here was Nino, not acting kind at all to Marinette. And yet, he stole all of her attention. Nathanael was jealous. 

Marinette wanted to know about this Mylene person, Nathanael had no idea who that person was, but if finding out made Marinette happy, then so be it. Nathanael just wanted Marinette to be happy.

But, he had this gut feeling, that Nino wouldn’t give Marinette the right answer.

Nino would give Marinette the truth.

The horrible, horrible truth.

Nathanael had no idea what the truth would be, but, whatever it was, he had this feeling that it would be horrible. Too horrible. It would doom them all, and Marinette wouldn’t be happy.

She deserved to be happy, even if he didn’t.

Nathanael’s hands continued to shake. They shifted, and clasped, and unclasped as Nathanael approached the two and shakily pushed Nino away from Marinette.

Nino briefly stumbled from surprise. Nathanael wasn’t very strong with how anxious he was. Nevertheless, Nino shot Nathanael a bewildered look, wondering where this was coming from.

Nino, as a prefect, had a responsibility and thus did not bully or abuse Nathanael like most others did. Nino was actually indifferent to Nathanael unless the redhead had a breakdown, and then he’d have the responsibility of escorting the half-breed to his room.

Other than that, the two never really interacted, at all.

As a result, this was out of left field.

Nathanael realized this as well, and caught Nino’s bewildered look.

The slither of confidence and resolve he’d had before, left as quickly as it came, and Nathanael was suddenly shaking even more. He stuttered, inwardly bracing himself for some sort of consequence as he stuttered, “I, uh, N-Nino, could you, uh, p-please, uh…” Nathanael was physically unable to finish the sentence, in fear of the abuse that could follow.

Marinette was confused, worried for Nathanael, but mostly confused. Nino, however, understood, and he surrendered, saying casually, “No prob. Dude, but, hey, in my defense, Marinette was the one asking all the questions. _I_ was the one telling her to stop.”

Nathanael just continued to stand there, trembling, and Nino tentatively pulled a package out of the paper bag and placed it on the floor in front of Nathanael. Nathanael remained standing and trembling, and Nino knew just what Nathanael was feeling.

Nino honestly didn’t mind, he wasn’t wanting to be around Marinette anyway. All she would’ve talked about would’ve been about Mylene, and he wanted to avoid that at all costs.

But Nino wasn’t sure how many times he could turn her away before he cracked.

In a way, he already had, with how he could barely talk to Felix and the others anymore without fighting with them. That was why he was taking on the responsibility of helping the younger kids so much lately.

Nino spun around on his heel, and started walking away from Marinette and Nathanael with a, “Well, I’ve got packages to drop off, see you later.”

Marinette watched the aspiring DJ walk away and stop in front of what Marinette recognized to be room 25. She watched in shock as Nino knocked on the door, and someone opened it and accepted the package that was given to them.

She’d have to cross 25 off of her list.

Marinette was pulled out of her thoughts when Nathanael tentatively tried to get her attention, “Um, Marinette?”

Marinette turned to see Nathanael looking down at his hands, still fidgeting. Her demeanor softened, and she wanted to be kind to him. Everyone else, even Nino to some extent, was condescending towards him. Marinette smiled sweetly and asked him, “Yeah, what is it?”

Nathanael nervously rubbed the back of his head and asked, “If it’s not too much to ask, could you, uh, please, um…” He trailed off here, losing confidence, bringing his hands back together nervously.

Marinette reached over and took his shaking hands in her secure ones, and Nathanael’s head snapped up and he looked over at her with a blush dusting his cheeks. Marinette shot him a reassuring smile and asked gently, “What was it?”

Nathanael squeezed Marinette’s hands in his own almost desperately as he stuttered with a blush, “Could you, could you please, uh, just… not talk to Nino anymore? Please?”

Marinette blinked in surprise and took her hands away from Nathanael as she simply pointed out, too focused in her mission in validating Mylene’s existence, “But he knows something about Mylene!”

Marinette’s simple protest had Nathanael taking a step away from her in a panic, terrified that he’d angered her. He mistook her protest for something greater. Normally such words would’ve been an indication for an assault.

Nathanael had to remind himself that this was Marinette. His instincts screamed at him to run, but he found the strength within him to remain. Marinette was kind, she’d understand if he just explained.

Nathanael, in his nervousness, started rambling, trying in vain to explain his thoughts coherently, “I-uh, you’re really so kind Marinette, to be worried about so many people, even about someone that nobody remembers, like Mylene, but, uh, if you could, uh, just, stay away from Nino, I mean, if it’s not too much to ask, but, uh, I just… _Nino is bad news_ , and uh…”

Marinette crossed her arms, stern with an eyebrow raised, put off by how he was telling her what to do, forgetting that it was Nathanael that she was speaking with despite his stuttering. Nathanael trailed off and wrung his hands in panic, on the verge of tears.

Why couldn’t he explain himself? He was going to make her angry! He was going to make his sweet Marinette angry with him!

Nathanael fell to his knees and desperately grabbed onto Marinette’s left arm, pleading with something different than just normal love, “I just want you to be _happy_ , and-and Nino won’t make you happy, at all.” He shook with terror, bracing himself for rejection from the one person who hadn’t yet done it.

Just as tears were about to fall, Marinette sighed and pulled Nathanael to his feet, placing her hands on his shoulders to steady him. She smiled wearily, going easy on him because no one else would, “You must be exhausted. I can walk you back to your room if you want. You look like you could use a nap.”

Nathanael shook his head, “No, I’m-I’m fine, I just… Nino won’t help you, not _really_ , and I just want you to be happy! You deserve to be.” He bit his lip, wanting to explain himself in clearer words but not being able to.

Marinette didn’t know how to respond. From the way he was looking at her, it was so clear that he had a crush on her, but… Marinette wasn’t looking for love. She was looking for answers, and Nathanael didn’t have any. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she had to let him down somehow…

Nathanael tentatively reached out with a shaking hand, and pleaded, “ _Please_.”

Before he could touch her shoulder, however, something stopped him in his tracks. A force held him back, and he couldn’t move. It was as if he were encased in stone, unable to move.

Nathanael recognized it immediately, and he breathed, still for the first time in what felt like forever, “Initiative…”

When an akuma summons the negative energy that corrupted them in the first place, they could use it to lay claim to another akuma’s mind. This initial attack would initially weaken the user. After that point, however, the user could control the target at will. This ability was called initiative.

Initiative pushed Nathanael back, and he fell on the ground. Nathanael stared at the carpeted floor, wide-eyed. Who had used initiative on him?

Marinette blinked in surprise, she recognized the initiative as well, but she knew for a fact that she didn’t have initiative over Nathanael.

She looked over her shoulder. Maybe Nino used it? But, there was no one there.

Marinette turned to look back in front of her, and was surprised to see Felix stumbling down the hallway in pain, clutching his head.

Felix groaned, “Aghh, my anemia…”

Nathanael heard, and numbly scrambled out of the way so that Felix wouldn’t fall on him. Marinette rushed over to catch Felix before he hit the ground, and she asked, “Felix, are you alright? What’re you doing here in the girls’ dorm?”

Felix nodded with a wince whilst in Marinette’s arms, “I'm fine, it’s just my anemia again.” He placed a hand on the nape of Marinette’s neck and brought her face closer to his as he murmured, “You smell nice, maybe that's why?”

Marinette, flustered, shoved Felix away with a, “No, that's definitely not why.”

Felix stumbled and squeezed his eyes shut in pain, before regaining his composure and replying, “Sorry, I can barely think straight.”

Marinette crossed her arms, and remarked, “Sounds like you could use a break.”

With that, Felix shut his eyes one more time and fought off the anemia spell. When he opened his eyes again, he replied, “Yes, everyone needs a break now and then, but, unfortunately, mine only occur when my anemia gets bad.” He stepped too close to Marinette's face and murmured, “Maybe you could help me out though, with my breaks.”

Marinette’s eyes widened, and she slapped Felix on impulse, and the blonde stumbled away with a wince, “Ow! You’ve got a pretty strong arm there.”

Marinette glared at him, a faint blush decorating her cheeks, “Just get back to work.”

Felix chuckled and held up his hands in surrender as he said, “Yeah, ok, ok.” He then sobered up and produced a key. He walked over and, to Marinette’s shock, slid it into the key hole of the door to room 15.

The one empty room on her floor. The one room that could have a clue to Mylene.

Felix was careful to slip into the room and shut the door behind him without letting Marinette and Nathanael see what was inside.

Marinette didn’t know how long she and Nathanael remained outside of room 15, not sure what to make of what just happened.

Nathanael was still on the ground. He was numb, his mind blank throughout the whole encounter with Felix.

Marinette stood there, shocked that Felix just went into room 15.

When Felix exited again, he carried two large boxes stacked on top of each other, his head blocked from view.

He was about to walk away without another word, back to business. Marinette, however, stopped him and asked, not able to get rid of the surprise in her voice, “What-what did you just do?”

Felix turned back around, and craned his neck to peer around the boxes as he said, a knowing look in his eye, and a mysterious smile on his face, “I was asked to empty out this room. Sheets, clothes, knick-knacks, really all that’s left in there is the furniture. It’s been packed up for a while now, so this really has been long overdue.”

“Do you know who lived in there?” Marinette asked hesitantly, hopeful for an answer.

Her heart sank when Felix shrugged casually, moving his head back behind the boxes, before he said, “Beats me. You’ll have to ask Juleka or Rose, they’re the ones with the roster of girls in the dorm.”

Before he walked away, Felix lightly tapped Nathanael's leg with his foot, saying in an even tone with little room for argument in his voice, “C’mon, I’m dropping this off at the mess hall. We can go to the boys’ dorm afterwards, I’m long overdue for another nap.”

Nathanael blinked out of his stupor, and cast a trembling glance back at Marinette. The pigtailed girl shrugged and looked away. She didn’t know what to do. Felix stood there firmly, facing away from them. He wasn’t going to move until Nathanael stood up as well.

Nathanael was shivering, but not from the cold, as he reached over to grab his package. He shakily stood up, nearly falling multiple times, Marinette having to help him up. Nathanael clutched onto Marinette’s arms, but, before he could cling onto her completely, Felix announced, “C’mon, Nathanael, let’s go.”

Marinette let go and took a step back, watching as Nathanael trailed behind Felix, shooting one last longing look at Marinette.


	5. Princess Chloe

 

 

 

> _Everyone, are you in good spirits? It's a lovely day! Do you know about Princess Chloe?_
> 
> _Don't be shy, prostrate yourself before Princess Chloe!_
> 
> _The sun that rises when waking up in the morning, that’s Princess Chloe!_
> 
> _The beautiful moon that glows when night falls, that’s Princess Chloe!_
> 
> _The people of the world envy her, and the flowers of the world are jealous of her._
> 
> _She’s this castle’s princess, Princess Chloe!_

* * *

Marinette sighed from within her room, rolling up the large cloth that contained her diagram of the girls’ dorm.

She’d been unsure of what to do after the situation with Nino, Felix, and Nathanael… But decided to break into all the circled rooms on her diagram, anyway.

Even after checking them all, there was still not a single clue about Mylene.

Marinette could only hope that a clue had been in one of those boxes that Felix had taken from room 15.

She knew that he’d taken them to the mess hall, but they really could’ve been in any of the offices there, and Marinette wasn’t sure how she could go about looking through there. The patients and prefects who worked there wouldn’t just let Marinette go snooping around without an explanation.

…and she definitely couldn’t just tell them that she was looking for Mylene. Really, any explanation would’ve been too suspicious.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t worth it…

But, she still had to know what this Mylene thing was all about. Even if she wasn’t real, she still needed to find out the truth somehow.

She’d find another way.

Marinette picked up the rolled up sheet of cloth and stowed it away under her bed. She then sighed and then stood up. Picking up her keys from her desk, Marinette put on her rain jacket and rain boots, which she’d customized to be red with black spots instead of just black.

Marinette left her room, shutting the door behind her, and walked down the hallway to begin her descent down the stairs.

It’d only been a few hours since Alix, Kim, and Max had dragged Alya away to that martial arts thing, maybe they were still there? Marinette needed something to do now, and she wasn’t all that bad at fighting.

Marinette exited the stairwell and walked through the hallway and into the lobby, where she was surprised to see Felix, napping on one of the armchairs in the lounge. Nathanael and the boxes nowhere in sight.

She turned to see another akuma sitting on the other side of the lounge reading a book. Marinette called over to her, “Why’s Felix in here? This is the girls’ dorm.” She didn’t mention how Felix had been there earlier, and seemingly haven’t left.

The green-haired bookworm shrugged, not looking up from her book, “Chloe and Sabrina caught him while he was walking back to the boys’ dorm with Nathanael. She forced him to do something for her, but I didn’t catch what their conversation was about. He crashed when she left, I don’t blame him.”

Marinette nodded in agreement, “Me either.” When it came to Chloe, anyone, even a prefect like Felix, was in the line of fire, and dealing with her was exhausting.

Though she understood that he had to deal with Chloe, it still made her uncomfortable that he was still sleeping in the girls’ dorm. She moved to shake his shoulder and wake him up. He stirred and mumbled incoherently, but did not wake. His head flopped back down on the armrest like a brick.

Marinette sighed. Whatever, it couldn’t be helped. If Felix was going to sleep, let him sleep. Marinette continued walking out of the girls’ dorm, and hadn’t even taken two steps outside before she heard a shout.

Kim was practically dragging Alix away from the recreation center, with Max and Alya following behind them. Alix was furious, violently trying to wrench her arms away from Kim as she shouted, “Let me go! I can’t just let her fucking say that to me! She’s going to regret it!”

Alya sighed and said, “You can’t just fight her in the middle of the asylum, the prefects are going to be mad.”

Kim adjusted his grip on Alix so she was better restrained as he added, “It’s not worth it.”

Marinette, having a suspicion on what was going on, approached them and asked cautiously, “What’s going on?”

Alix stopped struggling, and simply wrenched herself from Kim’s grip and stood there as she spat venomously, “Chloe, that fucking bitch.”

Max turned to Marinette and translated, “Chloe arrived at the martial arts event, and someone got into an argument with her. She then switched her attention and started provoking Alix instead, as usual.”

Alix growled, her fists clenched as she said, “the only person Chloe rips on more than me is that fucking half-breed, and that’s only because _everyone_ rips on the damn tomato-head. God, I fucking hate her!”

Marinette sighed and asked wearily, “What did she say this time?”

Alya began counting off on her fingers as she listed, “Well, she said that Alix was too scrawny for martial arts. She also made fun of her pink hair for being…” Alya trailed off, wincing, but then continued, “uh, yeah… she called her a lot of things.”

Alix angrily added, “ _And_ she said that I fucking smelled like a trash compactor! Do you know what could be in a fucking trash compactor? Rotten food, poop, vomit, _dead bodies_. _I don’t fucking smell like a trash compactor_.”

Alix, in her fury, then turned around, fully prepared to go back to the recreation center to give Chloe a piece of her mind. Before she could, Kim’s lightning fast reflexes grabbed her arm and held her back. Alix wrenched her arm from Kim’s grip, but remained standing there as she said quickly, “Don’t touch me.”

And then, one of the last voices that any of them wanted to hear pierced the air with an, “Oh? And why’s that? Are you trying to hide the fact that you eat dead bodies for a snack like a vulture?” It was Sabrina, not Chloe, who was approaching them. Underneath her raincoat, she wore the sweater vest made by Gerald.

The group watched Sabrina warily as she moved to stand beside them, a perfect replica of Chloe’s smug smirk decorating her face. She made a show of sniffing the air and holding her nose as she said, “Ugh, gross. Princess Chloe was right, you, Alix, definitely smell like a graveyard.”

If looks could kill, Sabrina would’ve died three times over with the glare that Alix was throwing her way. The pink haired girl threatened in a low tone, “You. Take. That. Back.”

Sabrina scoffed, “Oh, please, we all know it’s true.” Sabrina turned her attention to the others and asked, “Don’t you think so?”

Marinette sniffed the air, but couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary, just the smell of the rain. Though, she could feel that Alix, as a person, was more prone to getting angry. It wasn’t because the pink haired girl had been so mad, but it was more like an aura that wafted off of Alix.

But, Marinette couldn’t _smell_ anything strange, so she shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”

Max, however, blinked in surprise, and looked over at Alix as he said slowly, “I-I smell it.” Alix glared at him and he smiled sheepishly, and discreetly took a step back and waved his hand in front of his face as he added, “I hadn’t noticed before now, but it is quite repulsive.”

Marinette was taken aback, “Really? I don’t smell anything.”

Alya added plainly, “Neither do I.”

On the other hand, Kim took a single step back away from Alix and nervously began, “Uh, well…”

Alix whirled around to glare at Kim as she warned in a low tone, “Don’t. You. Dare.”

Kim held his arms up in surrender with a guilty smile on his face as he said anyway, “You _do_ smell a little weird, it’s like…” He trailed off, his hands falling back to his sides as he thought for a moment before finally saying, “You know, I can’t describe it.”

And then the atmosphere made a change for the worse as a haughty voice called out, “Well, _I_ can, and it smells exactly like misery and hopelessness. Ugh, it’s _worse_ than a trash compactor.”

Chloe moved to stand beside Sabrina, and Alix immediately moved towards her to give the blonde a piece of mind, but Alya held her back. Alix responded by shoving her away, but Kim held back Alix back instead, and Alya backed off, letting Kim handle Alix as usual.

Alix growled, standing tensely in Kim’s arms, but no longer struggling as she hissed at Chloe, “I fucking hate you.”

Sabrina then arrogantly retorted, hands on her hips, “Well, it doesn’t matter, because Princess Chloe doesn’t need peasants like you in her kingdom.”

Alya raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, “ _Princess_ Chloe?”

Marinette crossed her arms and asked skeptically, “Kingdom?”

Chloe flipped her ponytail over her shoulder, “It’s an inside joke, you wouldn’t understand.” She put her hands on her hips and smirked as she said, “Oh, wait, with that smell of yours, you’re even less than a peasant. You’re more like those untouchables, so worthless that even the peasants wouldn’t dare touch you.”

That comment was the last straw. _Untouchable_? _Others not daring to touch her_? Those words in particular affected Alix, and she was furious. That word, untouchable, was not just crossing the line, it was eagerly trampling it and running to the forbidden side as fast as possible.

Alix yanked herself out of Kim’s grip, and stalked angrily over to Chloe. Alya and Marinette, alarmed, tried to block Alix, but the skater pushed past them, not letting anyone in her way.

Alix had personal anxieties and reasons for not letting anyone touch her (besides Kim). Not mention the fact that Rose and Juleka had taught them about the caste system, and how its untouchables weren’t even worthy enough to be included in the system like the servants were.

Chloe’s comment brought back unwanted nightmares.

As Alix approached Chloe, the blonde was forced to back up, alarmed as the pink-haired girl seethed, “Untouchable? UNTOUCHABLE? How dare you. What do you know about me, huh? What do you know?” Alix had to use all her willpower to not clobber Chloe, clenching her fists as she stood there, shaking in fury.

The skater looked ready to punch or tackle Chloe, and so Max then nervously interjected, “Uh, Alix?”

Chloe said nothing in response, and Alix then continued with a venomous, “That’s right, NOTHING. You don’t know shit about me, so why don’t you take your untouchable princess ass over to the kitchen and sit yourself down in the trashcan where you actually belong.”

Chloe then had the gall to respond with a smug smirk, “If I’m a trashcan, then you’re a radioactive landfill.”

Alix growled and moved to attack Chloe, but then she was frozen in her tracks when a distinctly sleepy yet smooth and commanding voice resonated through the air, “That’s enough.”

The ones not facing Felix, save Alix, turned to see the blonde prefect approach, eyes still sleepy, having just been awoken. He, as a prefect, still found a way to be stern and responsible as he said, “You both should know by now that violence out of hate is not tolerated at this asylum.”

Max lightly tugged on the sleeve of Alix’s rain jacket, too worried to do much else, and Alix grudgingly took a step back from Chloe and turned. She wordlessly held out her wrist to Kim, and the athlete grasped it and tugged the skater to stand beside him instead of in front of Chloe. He let go of Alix’s wrist afterwards, but Alix remained standing beside him.

She didn’t trust herself to look back at Chloe and not beat her up.

Felix breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Alix had backed off, and sent a pointed look over to Chloe. She simply scoffed and crossed her arms as she said, “Whatever, old man.”

Felix’s eye twitched as he glowered at Chloe, very clearly looking just as young as any other fifteen year old, and he repeated slowly, “old… man?” Chloe wasn’t deterred at all even as Felix walked over to her and asked with a fake and tense smile on his face, “What did you say?”

Marinette, Alya, and Sabrina looked horrified that Chloe would insult one of the prefects, and Max cringed at the scene. Chloe clicked her tongue, her face one of complete indifference as she drawled, “You smell just as bad as Alix. You guys should join Nathanael and the other half-breeds and form an ‘untouchables’ club.”

Marinette was appalled as she asked, “did she just…?”

Max took a step back away from Chloe as he replied, “she certainly did.”

Alya just asked incredulously, “Chloe, what’s with you and how people smell?”

Chloe’s smirk grew more mischievous, as she taunted, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” She put her hands on her hips and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder in a show of superiority as she added, “If only you all had a royal sense of smell like mine, then you’d be able to pick out the miserable rats from the rest of us normal mice.”

Marinette crossed her arms and glared at Chloe as she said, “You’re bluffing. You’re just picking on people you don’t like.”

Chloe shot Marinette a smug look that was surprisingly laced with a hidden knowledge as she replied, “Oh, trust me, if I were doing that, then you’d smell like misery instead of cake.”

Marinette didn’t get it, but a look at the tense Felix and Alix told her that they did. She could also see an epiphany hit Kim, Max, and Sabrina, as if they only just understood the implications of that sentence. Marinette looked over at Alya, and saw that even her best friend seemed to be suspicious.

What was it that she didn’t seem to be getting?

Sabrina, having been loyally following Chloe without questioning her, asked hesitantly, pointing at Alix and Felix, “Wait, are they really-”

Felix cut her off when he reached out, put a hand on Chloe’s shoulder, and turned her in the direction of the girls’ dorm and said, “That’s enough.  This fight ends here. I’m not one for punishments, but know that if Rose and Juleka were also here, then this would be ending differently.”

Chloe clicked her tongue before saying ominously to Felix, “You ought to stop hiding.” before walking away with a flip of her hair, Sabrina following after her.

Meanwhile, Sabrina’s question brought Marinette’s attention over to Felix and Alix, and she was reminded of Nathanael. Marinette’s eyes widened with realization and she exchanged an incredulous look with Alya, who was almost as surprised as she was.

As Felix walked back over to the boys’ dorm after sending a scowl at Chloe’s back, Kim and Max led Alix to the recreation center.

Marinette wasn’t sure where to go.

How Chloe could pick out akumatized half-breeds just from her sense of smell?

Marinette watched as Chloe and Sabrina entered the girls’ dorm. Recalling how Chloe acted as if she had the secret to life, Marinette could only wonder.

What else was it that Chloe understood? 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Surrounded by the tall, green, lush, and plentiful trees of the forest was a small, run down building. It was too small to be a cabin, yet too big to be a mere shed. There was only one window, and it was sealed shut with age.

Inside, the wooden walls were riddled with dust. The ceiling above was home to cobwebs and various insects. While the corners were dirty, the rest of the floor was marginally cleaner than the rest of the shack.

The little cabin had no furnishing at all save for a large, round, old, royal purple rug left in a pile on the floor beside a little trap door. A lock for the trap door lay off to the side, an unlit lantern sat beside the locked front door.

Then, a sound came from beyond the trap door, as if someone were fiddling with a lock from the inside. The trap door opened with a loud creak, revealing Rose to be the person that was fiddling with it. A faint light came from the room beneath the trap door in the floor.

Rose stepped off the steep steps leading up to the trap door from within, propping her hands on the floor so she could sit beside the trap door. Then, there was another sound, as if someone’s hand was groping the underside of the floor for something. With the flick of a switch, the light below from beyond the trap door was shut off. The large shed was plunged back into darkness.

Juleka’s head popped up from the opening in the floor left by the trap door as Rose grabbed the lantern by the door, not getting up off the floor, and grabbed some matches from inside her raincoat pocket. The light from the lantern dimly lit up the room, and Juleka climbed out of the hidden room and into the little cabin.

Juleka closed the trap door once more, this time grabbing the combination lock and using it to keep the trap door in place. She made sure to mix the numbers up from what they were previously, 9376.

Juleka then scooched away from the trap door so that she was instead sitting by the front door. Rose then grabbed the large rug and spread it out over the trap door, successfully covering it and the grand majority of the floor up.

Rose then crawled over to Juleka, who had her eyes closed as she leaned her head back against the wall. Rose placed a gentle hand on her lover’s knee and said softly, “We should be getting back.”

Juleka let out a shaky breath and brought her hands up to her closed eyes, her head drooped as she said, as if on the verge of tears, “Just a little longer...”

The rain was coming down hard, the shack plunged into a silence that was constantly interrupted by the sound of raindrops hitting the little cabin.

Rose smiled tenderly, looking almost sad or melancholy as she moved to sit beside her girlfriend. The short haired girl asked softly, “What about the director?”

Those were not the words Juleka wanted to hear, and a slightly muffled gasp escaped her as she began to cry. Her hands moved away from her eyes, instead reaching out to pull Rose into a hug as silently sobbed.

Rose was downcast, yet a strength inside her allowed her to maintain her composure unlike her girlfriend, who rarely ever cried anymore. Juleka also rarely initiated hugs, but, ever since recent events, it seemed as though crying and hugging were all they ever did in their alone time.

Rose returned Juleka’s hug, patting her girlfriend’s back to soothe her as the long-haired girl asked Rose, her voice quiet and raspy, “Why does she-? How? Mylene-” Juleka cut herself off, no longer sobbing, but silent tears still ran down her cheeks.

Rose bit her lip before closing her eyes and gently tightening her embrace as she whispered, “It’ll be ok. It has to be.”

Juleka murmured in doubt, her voice shaky, “It’s impossible. Marinette shouldn’t…”

Rose patted Juleka’s head and hushed her gently, “It’s ok…”

Rose opened her eyes, gazing out the only window of the shack as she said firmly, “No one will disturb our eternal chrysalis.”


	6. The Story of a Gardener

 

 

> _There once was a gardener who treasured a particular flower._
> 
> _To the lonesome gardener who had no family, it was as if that flower were a lover to be raised with the utmost care._
> 
> _However, that flower wilted within no time, because all flowers wilt one day no matter how beautiful they are._
> 
> _The gardener wept bitterly, and when the tears ran dry, the gardener came to a decision: "I shall create a flower that will bloom eternally."_
> 
> _In the days to come, the gardener sunk day and night into research, but all flowers have to wither and die._
> 
> _Finally the gardener became exhausted, and his breathing ceased among the flowers._
> 
> _Then, upon the gardener's remains, a single flower bloomed, but even that flower will wither and die in the end._
> 
> _No matter how beautiful, all flowers that bloom must wilt._

* * *

Some time had passed since the scene between Alix and Chloe happened, and Marinette felt like she barely knew _anything_.

Where was Mylene? Why didn’t anyone else remember her, but Marinette did? What happened to her? What was up with Nino? What was up with Felix and that box from room 15? How come Alix is a half-breed? How could Chloe smell her out as a half-breed? Why was Alix so mean to Nathanael even though he was also a half-breed?

Marinette had asked Chloe about this, and the self-proclaimed princess, unlike _certain akumas_ , was completely blunt and honest when she said that she had no idea who or what Mylene was. When asked about Alix and Felix, however, the blonde girl also only provided a variety of insults, and nothing else.

The two in question absolutely refused to talk, Marinette suspected that the subject was too personal for them… Maybe Alix and Felix were scared that they would be treated the same way as Nathanael if people ever found out their true nature?

All that Chloe _would_ tell her was that she could _smell_ the misery of all the akumatized half-breeds in the asylum, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. She seemed to truly despise all of the half-breeds. Whether it was due to their smell or their nature, Marinette couldn’t tell. Though, she suspected that Chloe’s feelings towards Felix weren’t just hate, and that there was something different there, but Marinette couldn’t tell what it was.  

Even then, Chloe was acting smug, as if she was waiting for the moment when the akumatized half-breeds would burst, as if they were a ticking time bomb of negative emotions and chaos. Which they were, but they were taking medicine for a reason, right? With the medicine, the half-breeds were just like the rest of them, or, at least, they should’ve been, but people always attacked things they feared.

This applied to Chloe most of all, though she seemed to be more knowledgeable about people than she let on. But Marinette didn’t understand Chloe at all, and didn’t care to.

Her goal was to find out where Mylene was, and if Chloe didn’t have the answers, then Marinette wouldn’t worry about her.

Besides, Chloe was still the meanest person Marinette had ever met in her entire life. Chances were, Chloe was bluffing or just being mean-spirited, and that whatever she knew about the akumatized half-breeds wasn’t important. After all, they deserved to be treated like the rest of them, and if Chloe didn’t care to do that, then Marinette wasn’t going to bother with her.

For now, she had to find another way to find out more on Mylene.

Nino was being elusive, he always seemed to be too busy taking care of the younger kids nowadays.

Felix was too busy with his prefect duties, especially since he also had his anemia hindering him.

Rose and Juleka were both intimidating and stubborn, there would be no bothering them.

Ivan was simply confused, Alya was also being stubborn, and no one else knew anything about Mylene.

That’s what brought her to the mess hall. She had to check the boxes Felix had taken from room 15, because she now had no better options for finding out where Mylene was.

The problem?

As she’d expected, she’d been caught sneaking around, and now was in the middle of an argument with Vinh, the male prefect of the 17-year-olds. He had dark hair the same texture as Marinette’s, but it was darker, shorter, and fell over his right eye. He was also taller, and had skin that was several shades darker than Marinette’s.

Marinette clasped her hands together as she pleaded, “Please? I’m really good at baking, I could help you guys out with desserts in the kitchen!”

Vinh had his arms crossed and was stern as he said, “No, that’s fine, we’ve got all the help we need in the kitchen.”

Marinette bit her lip in thought before she asked, “Then can I help the ordering office out with shipments? That can’t be too hard, right?”

Vinh shook his head, “No, we don’t need any extra help in the ordering office.”

Marinette was getting desperate, “Oh, come on! Cut me some slack, Vinh, _please_? You’ve gotta have extra positions in the ordering office. Or, I could help you out in the infirmary! Is there any paperwork you need help sorting out? Or things you need help organizing?”

Vinh was strict as he said firmly, “No, we don’t need any help. You need to find something else to do. This part of the mess hall is for prefects and patients who properly requested jobs _only_. Unless it’s meal time or you’re injured or need to order something, then you should not be in the mess hall.”

Marinette sighed in defeat, knowing that there was no more arguing with Vinh, and said, “Alright, fine.” She was not ready to leave, however, and so she asked, “But, can I just order a new pair of knitting needles?” Marinette paused and then quickly added, “No, wait, I need three pairs.”

Vinh raised an eyebrow and asked in return, “And, why do you need knitting needles?”

Marinette let out a nervous chuckle as she recalled what had happened in the sewing room earlier, and how Eveline had been chasing Gerald around and trying to stab him with the knitting needles because of a lewd comment he made. Knowing Vinh would understand, Marinette shortened the whole exchange to, “Gerald tried to hit on Eveline again.”

Vinh shook his head with an exasperated sigh, “Right, those two. What kind do you want?”

Marinette shrugged, “It doesn’t really matter.”

Vinh nodded and moved away to walk back to the ordering office as he said, “Alright, I’ll place your order, and it should be here by dawn. And, remember, leave the mess hall _now_ , and find something else to do.”

Marinette sighed, and turned around, “Yeah, ok.” She dejectedly trudged out of the mess hall, disappointed that she wasn’t able to land a job. Though Marinette supposed she wasn’t surprised, she’d still been hoping to get a job so she could have an excuse to search the mess hall for clues on Mylene.

…if she even existed.

Just as Marinette passed the last of the offices, she jumped in surprise as Felix rushed out of one of them, holding a handheld radio transceiver to his ear and talking into it rapidly. She blinked in surprise, watching as he walked down the hallway in the opposite direction, presumably to the back exit.

He was talking about finances and shipments, or something along those lines. Marinette didn’t really understand that stuff.

She looked over at the office room that he came out of, and noticed that the door hadn’t been closed completely.

Marinette hadn’t been sure where Felix had put the boxes from room 15, but, what if they were in that office room that Felix just came out of?

Marinette warily looked down both ways of the hallway, and as discretely as possible, maneuvered into the office room with the grace of Winnie the Pooh. She shut the door behind her, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the office room was empty.

The office wasn’t really big. The wall that the door was on was completely lined with boxes stacked on top of each other. The walls that formed the far right corner of the room was lined with filing cabinets, and the wall to the left was home to a bulletin board that had a bunch of reminders related to the finances of the asylum.

There was a small table in the center of the room with two folding chairs. On this table was a mountain of paperwork that made Marinette’s head hurt just from looking at it all. There was an office desk and chair in the far left corner, home to stacks of paperwork and several rather outdated electronic appliances. They wouldn’t be able to communicate with the outside world, but they were able to do things like computation and solitaire and Marinette supposed that that was all that the prefects needed. 

Marinette walked to the center of the room and turned to face the wall of boxes, and gulped, paling at the sight. How was she supposed to tell which had the things from room 15? Moreover, how was she supposed to tell what the things from room 15 even were?

Felix was bound to be back sooner or later, Marinette had to be quick.

She noticed that some of the boxes to her left were collecting a lot of dust, and promptly ignored those. The box from room 15 hadn’t been in the office for that long.

Marinette bit her lip as she looked over the boxes, not sure where to start. She was aware the Felix could come back at any time, and so she made a snap decision. She walked over towards the bulletin board, and chose a random box that had stood out to her as being fresh.

It was wedged in between several other boxes, and so Marinette was careful as she eased it away from the shelf and put it on the ground with a heave.

Quickly checking the door to make sure Felix didn’t return, Marinette opened up the box to find nothing but a bunch of notebooks and binders. Marinette picked one up, and flipped it open to a random page. She was met with an entire page of chemical equations, and Marinette quickly deduced that she had the wrong box, and quickly put the notebook back inside the box and heaved it up onto the top of the box pile with great effort.

Chemistry, like calculus, was something that Marinette was not interested in getting involved with.

Marinette then chose another box from the same exact stack of boxes, and carefully dropped it on the floor, grunting from its weight. She opened it up, and almost groaned when she was met with nothing but world maps, star maps, country maps, ocean maps, road maps, and maps of every variety.

No one in the right mind would keep maps in their bedroom.

Marinette closed the box back up and placed it back on the stack. She then grabbed the box at the top of the stack right next to it, and it nearly crashed to the ground as Marinette attempted to get it down.

She wasn’t very tall.

Already getting tired from moving the boxes around, and suspecting that Felix would be back soon, Marinette prayed that this box was the one as she opened it up. Searching through the box, she spotted a strangely familiar pink strip of cloth. She held it up, and spotted a single pin on it. A smile stretched across her face. This had to be Mylene’s headband! That meant that Mylene had existed after all!

Or, at least, someone with a pink headband like Mylene’s had existed.

Marinette put the pink headband back inside the box, and pushed aside a table lamp to find that a notebook was buried at the bottom of the box. She pulled the notebook out of the box, and sat down on the ground.

If anything could have evidence of Mylene existing, it’d be a notebook, where one can write down or draw to their heart’s content. Marinette had her own sketchbook, where she doodled clothes. It was relieving, and such creativity made Marinette feel free.

Whoever owned this notebook, would surely feel the same way, whether they were writing or drawing.

The notebook was plain and generic, but a rather poorly-drawn picture of a blue flower had been glued to the front, setting it apart from other generic notebooks.

Marinette opened up the notebook to the first page, and written at the top of it was: “Felix said that writing my feelings down would help me control my fear complex, so that’s what this journal is for.”

The handwriting was a blend of cursive and standard letters, but was still readable, much more legible than Nino’s or Ivan’s handwriting. With the way that they were written on the page, the words didn’t sit neatly on the lines, just slightly crossing them. The words were written double-spaced.

Marinette looked over this first sentence, and couldn’t help but get more curious at what it said. From what Marinette _could_ remember, this sounded a lot like Mylene. But, if Felix had been the one to suggest this journal, then why wouldn’t he answer her questions about Mylene? This journal had to be hers, right?

A smile spread across Marinette’s face as she caught sight of some of the other things written on that particular page. Among sentences like “ _I like acting_ ” and “ _I hate being scared_ ” was also “ _My name is Mylene_ ” and “ _Ivan’s my boyfriend now_.”

This was confirmation that Mylene existed. There was no picture, and, while there were no cameras at the asylum, Marinette didn’t need any picture to know that Mylene existed for sure. Mylene’s personality, her proof of existence, was written all over that page in her handwriting, and in her short sentences.

Marinette flipped to the next page and was pleasantly surprised to see a rather crude stick figure comic strip with a script underneath. She flipped through the notebook, and found that most of the pages had things like this. Maybe it had to do with Mylene’s love for acting?

Some pages didn’t have comics or scripts on them, and instead had nothing but a few reminders or a quick addition of numbers on them. Clearly this notebook had multiple purposes. 

Marinette skimmed the comics, not really paying attention to what was written. After flipping through about a third of the notebook, however, there were no more comics or scripts, only random reminders written sparingly across pages. The handwriting was sloppier, and Marinette had a hard time deciphering Mylene’s handwriting.

After only a few pages like this, the notebook was seemingly completely blank again. Marinette flipped through the pages, but ran into page after page of blankness.

Marinette sighed, and was about to close the notebook in resignation. At least she had proof that Mylene existed.

Right when she was about to close the notebook, Marinette caught a glimpse of a page towards the back with words written on it, and abruptly opened it up again to try and find it. Rapidly flipping through the notebook, she stopped when she spotted what appeared to be an essay or a story written across several pages towards the back of the notebook.

There wasn’t anything else of that length and density written in the notebook, and Marinette was immediately curious, what was written on those pages?

Marinette immediately recognized that the handwriting was messier, shakier than what was in the rest of the notebook. And from what was on the page, it seemed as though Mylene were panicked as she wrote this, maybe it had to do with why she wasn’t around?

Written at the top of the page was, _“I need to write this down before I forget.”_ And then there was a scribble beside it, as if Mylene had crossed out a few letters, though Marinette could only make out a capital “L.” After that, however, was _“my mom told this story to me, it’s real, it’s important.”_

Marinette read on, and was met with a tragic story about an old gardener who led a lonely life, having been abandoned by his family for as long as he could remember. He thus treasured his flowers, and raised them with the utmost care, because they were his family now.

Only his flowers could keep him company.

But, within no time, the flowers wilted, yet the gardener lived on. It happened over and over again. Each time autumn would come along, his flowers would die.  It’s the endless cycle of life, what can live, bloom, and become beautiful, must die so that other beings can do the same. It is the natural order of things.

But this gardener mourned for his flowers each time they wilted, and wept bitter tears. His flowers kept leaving him like his family had, and he yearned for a flower that could bloom and live as long as he could.

When the tears finally ran dry, the gardener came to an ultimatum, he’d create a flower that could bloom for all eternity. He sunk into research, worked day and night, but he could never successfully create a flower that could live as long as he could, because everything that lives and blooms must die.

The gardener was in despair, all he had wanted was for his flowers to keep him company. Eventually, the gardener, too, withered and died, his breathing had ceased while surrounded by his wilted flowers. Then, among his remains, a single flower had bloomed, but even that flower would die in the end. All flowers that bloom must wilt no matter how beautiful they are.

After reading this story, Marinette stared at the page, feeling sympathetic for the gardener. Having to live alone for that long? That was no way to live at all. What was the point of life if you were couldn’t make the most of it with the people you love?

But, what was the point of this story? Why was it so important? Marinette furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she looked over the page again. Really, this gardener could’ve been anyone, it sounded like any other fairy tale, albeit more depressing.

Marinette turned the page again, and was met with blankness with the exception of one sentence, scratched into the page so hard that it left imprints on the page afterwards, _“don’t forget. I’m reminding you, don’t forget.”_

Marinette’s thoughts moved a mile a minute. “Don’t forget?” that sounded a lot like Mylene, but, why was she so adamant on remembering this story about the gardener? Why was it so important? Did it have anything to do with why she disappeared? If so, how? Was it an allegory?

Marinette sighed and rubbed her forehead with her eyes closed. Thinking about this was giving her a headache. She didn’t understand.

Just then, Marinette heard a noise coming from down the hallway. She recognized it immediately, it was Felix’s voice, and he was complaining to Vinh about something, Marinette wasn’t sure.

Either way, Marinette panicked. She’d be in huge trouble if Felix found her going through his stuff.

Marinette rapidly dropped the notebook on the ground and shut the box, and grunted as she tried to put it back on the stacks, where it was before. After making sure that the box wouldn’t fall, Marinette breathed a sigh of relief.

Marinette immediately began panicking again when she saw that the notebook was still on the ground. Without thinking, she picked it up, closed it, and shoved it in the space between the box and the wall, pressing the box closer to the wall to make sure that it would stay.

Marinette booked it to the door to try and leave, but Felix had already reached the door, and all Marinette could do was try, and fail, to act natural. When Felix entered the room, the most awkward grin was stretched across Marinette’s face as if she were the awkward cousin of the kuchisake-onna.

Felix let out a weary sigh, and rubbed his temples as he closed his eyes, resigned, his free hand holding onto the handheld radio transceiver. This was clearly not his day, and Marinette chuckled awkwardly. Was he going to yell at her? He seemed mad earlier, but he seemed to just be done with everything, so Marinette wasn’t sure.

Felix opened his eyes and was jaded as he said with a sigh, “This room is prefects only. You shouldn’t be here.”

Marinette inched to the door with jerky movements as she replied with a nervous chuckle, wanting to get out of the situation without getting in trouble, “Ha ha, that’s right! Yup, I shouldn’t be in here, not at all! Um, I’ll be going now, yup, see you later, bye!”

Before Felix could say anything else, Marinette had already fled. She had a million questions running through her head as she walked out of the mess hall, but at least she was sure that Mylene existed now. That was the important part.

Felix stood there in his office, drained after Marinette had awkwardly fled. He wordlessly looked over at the boxes stacked up against the wall, and his eye caught a detail that most others wouldn’t have noticed.

He walked over to a stack on the far right end of the wall, and ran his hand down the stack of boxes that contained the maps and chemistry notes, the same boxes that Marinette had been messing with earlier.

Felix looked over at the box at the top of the stack next to it, the one that had Mylene’s things in it. He walked over and, with no trouble at all due to his height, grabbed it and carefully inched it away from the wall just a little bit.

A thud resounded through the room as Mylene’s notebook hit the ground, no longer having the box to hold it against the wall.

Felix sighed.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Ivan listlessly wandered around the asylum, not thinking much of anything. He’d been doing that a lot lately, as if he just didn’t know what to do with himself anymore. What did he usually do to pass the time?

Yes, Ivan spent time with the others before meal time, but he always found himself staying late during meal times to give Alix some quiet company. Ivan always left before she and the other half-breeds had to take their extra medicine, but after leaving, he would just kind of wander around until one of the others ran into him.

“Ivan? This is the girls’ dorm.” Ivan snapped back to reality to see that he was now standing by the wall at the far end of the girls’ dorm, and Alix was standing there, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

Ivan shook his head, feeling too detached from reality, and wanting to get in touch again. “Sorry, I don’t know why I keep coming back here,” he said before sighing and adding, “Do you know what I mean?”

Marinette’s mission to find Mylene was still on his mind. Apparently, this Mylene person had been his girlfriend, but Ivan couldn’t remember anyone like that at all.

Despite this, Ivan found the idea of having a girlfriend nice. He wanted someone to understand him like how a life partner would. The thought was almost nostalgic, or melancholic.

Ivan backtracked, startled. Wait… for it to feel melancholic or nostalgic, wouldn’t he have had to have a girlfriend of some sort? Had he really had a girlfriend, but just forgot about her? How could that be? Had Mylene really existed after all?

Ivan was brought back to reality once more when Alix started snapping her fingers in Ivan’s face and saying, “Hey, lover boy, life’s happening out here, not in there.”

Ivan sighed and replied, downcast, “Right, sorry.” Ivan’s eyebrows furrowed in thought as he, too, snapped his fingers as he asked, “Um, what did you say before that?”

Alix had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot as she explained, “I said, ‘yeah, I know what you mean.’ I’ve been hanging around this same weird back corner of the girls’ dorms around the same time after meals, and it’s weird.”

Ivan blinked, “Me, too.” Maybe, just maybe, this weird back corner of the girls’ dorm had some sort of significance, and wasn’t just a weird spot that he went back to by coincidence.

This back corner wasn’t anything special. But, since it was so close to the fence, people didn’t really hang around this back wall of the girls’ dorm unless they were a couple looking for privacy, or something.

Then, Ivan heard it, a distinct voice murmuring “don’t forget me.” The voice sounded achingly familiar, but Ivan found that he couldn’t place it to a face, no matter how hard he tried. This voice brought a longing feeling out from his heart.

Ivan looked around, wondering who could’ve said it, but found no one around besides Alix. He looked over at Alix and asked, “Did you say something?” Secretly terrified at the prospect of unearthing a mystery. But, the voice had left a hole in his heart, and Ivan wanted nothing more than to fill it back up again.

Alix gave Ivan a skeptical look as she deadpanned, “No. You need to sleep or something the meds must not be working for you.”

Ivan shook his head, desperate to find the person behind that voice saying “don’t forget me.”

“I’m forgetting something important. I remember a voice, and, and I think it might be Mylene’s but… I don’t actually remember her,” Ivan’s voice cracked as he said this. He brought a hand up to his head, all this thinking giving him a headache, and added, “I need to think.”

Alix scoffed and shook her head, “No, you need to sleep. You’re gonna faint or something, and there is no one here named Mylene.” Alix turned Ivan around and pushed him towards the boys’ dorms, but Ivan couldn’t stop thinking about that voice he remembered.

That sweet, shy voice of someone lost.


	7. TRUE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a combination of chapters 9 and 10 from the version I posted on Fanfiction.net
> 
>  
> 
> Also...  
> Remember how Nathanael was picking up a package when that stuff with Marinette, Nino, and Felix happened a few chapters back?

 

 

 

> _What if I were to tell you that even after this world ends, life would still continue on eternally?_
> 
> _When you had to watch the lives of those you love, and all you could do was wait for them to disappear._
> 
> _“...All alone?”_
> 
> _If the world were to come to an end, they were to ascertain the trail of the stars._
> 
> _“Stop it, you're driving me insane!”_
> 
> _That’s the fate of immortality, the truth of miraculous._
> 
> _“It’s a nonexistent fairy-tale!”_
> 
> _“And if I were to believe in it?”_
> 
> _“There must be something wrong with you!”_
> 
> _“...What exactly is it that you know?”_
> 
> _Such is the truth of miraculous, the life that knows no end._

* * *

Nathanael sat in his room. It was dimly lit, plain, and not decorated at all… unlike the rooms of other akuma patients. The only thing that differentiated his room from someone else’s was the black and white striped curtains that covered the windows, preventing what little outside light could’ve come in from entering.

It was mildly humid in his room, but Nathanael was shivering.

He was staring in a numb horror at the opened package on the ground in front of him.

Nathanael, as an akumatized half-breed, was dangerous. He in particular was hated by others so much because they feared his power, which was the ability to draw things into existence and erase other things from existence.

It was quite evident that it was more powerful than the powers of most of the other akumatized half-breeds. For example, Alix’s power was (mostly) useless without the roller skates that she could only summon in her akuma form. 

Moreover, most of the other half-breeds at the asylum were only around 5% to 15% akuma before they were turned. But, in comparison to Alix’s 16% and Felix’s 10%, Nathanael had been 28%. Not only was his superpower more powerful than the other half-breeds, he was fundamentally more dangerous than them.

That made for a horrifying combination.

What if the meds weren’t powerful enough for Nathanael, the most dangerous half-breed, and his powers were unleashed on the asylum? Pandemonium.

This was what was on the minds of everyone that bullied him, in addition to discrimination for just being a half-breed.

Most half-breeds at the asylum feared their powers and took extra measures to suppress them like taking more medicine than needed to suppress them or wearing thick gloves in Alix’s case.

Nathanael had sacrificed drawing in fear that he would harm others like he harmed his mother. The one drawing he’d done since coming to the asylum had been done with sauce on a napkin for Marinette to use as a reference to design his shirt. He hadn’t drawn anything since, and vowed to never do so again.

But unlike other half-breeds, who embraced the extra medicine for the sake of hiding their identities as akumatized half-breeds, Nathanael hated the extra medicine. Mostly because he hated needles, and dreaded the time after meals when he’d have to receive the extra medicine from those dreaded needles.

But it’d be too dangerous for Nathanael to go without it, so he hadn’t questioned it, and hadn’t complained.

Even so, Nathanael secretly wished that there’d be a way for him to not have to take the extra medicine, but was too afraid to go through with skipping it. There were too many consequences.

But then that package had come in the mail.

Nathanael had ordered paints and a sponge so he could sponge-paint his wall. He was getting too antsy, and needed to do something artsy to channel it. But, Nathanael had been too scared to get a brush or other drawing materials in fear of a possible leak of his power. So, he’d decided on sponge painting instead.

But what was actually delivered to him wasn’t the paints at all. He’d gotten a package with a vial of some sort of liquid medication instead.

Nathanael lost count of the amount of times he’d checked the label on the box, but there was no doubt that it was his. Nino would’ve said something otherwise.

Everything written on the box besides his own name was in a different language, which was Italian according to his neighbor. Despite this, the vial itself was labelled in Chinese, which neither Nathanael nor his neighbor understood.

This vial was terrifying him.

Who sent it? Why didn’t he get his paint? Moreover, what did the Chinese on the vial say?

What if it was poison? What if it negated the effects of the asylum’s medicine? What if it heightened his negative emotions? What if it heightened his powers? What if it worsened his insomnia or his anxiety?

Or… what if it would _help_ suppress his powers?

He couldn’t answer any of the questions, but he could find someone that knew Chinese who could.

Felix knew Chinese, but when Nathanael had passed by him with the vial in hand, the blonde prefect had seemed alarmed that he had it, and Nathanael had hidden it in a panic. He couldn’t risk it, what if Felix got mad?

Nathanael would have to ask around for someone else that knew Chinese, but that meant facing the bullies.

With shaking hands, Nathanael reached out for the vial and finally moved to stand up and leave the room. Peeking out his door, he didn’t know whether to cry from relief or terror when he saw that there was someone walking through the hallway.

This akuma appeared to be older, and his hair was dark, long, and straight, but his skin was a golden yellow. His clothes were standard for the asylum. He was evidently on a delivery job for the ordering office due to the two boxes he carried. This actually worked in Nathanael’s favor, he could have a chance to ask the guy about the mix-up without the guy possibly getting upset like Felix.

Nathanael had hope that this guy could possibly know Chinese and not turn him away, small hope, but hope nonetheless.

Nathanael, shivering, approached this guy, who stopped in his tracks and flinched like how most people did upon seeing him. Nathanael deflated a bit, but then sighed and decided to ask him anyway, he was used to this kind of response by now.

“Uh, do you know how to read Chinese?” Nathanael asked the guy hesitantly.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” the guy replied casually, wary of Nathanael. His eyes, however, caught sight of the vial in Nathanael’s shaking hands and, alarmed, he asked, “Wait, what is that?”

Nathanael was shaking from anxiety as he stuttered, “Um, uh, there was a mix up? I ordered paints and I got this-this thing instead. I-I don’t know what it is, I can’t read the labels.”

The guy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but held out his hand for Nathanael to place the vial in and said, “Here, give it to me, I’ll see what it says.” As Nathanael dropped the vial in the guy’s hand, careful not to touch him, the guy muttered under his breath, “I’m going to have to talk to the ordering office about this mix-up.”

Nathanael watched nervously as the guy’s eyes widened in alarm as he read the label on the vial. The guy turned the vial a few times to read everything on the labels and make sure he got it right. Nathanael was regretting the decision to ask, the guy seemed even more alarmed by the vial than Felix was.

The guy then asked sharply, “Do you still have the box? What’s the return address? I’ll have to see which one of our suppliers sent this.”

Nathanael shrugged hopelessly with quivering shoulders as he replied, “I-I don’t know. It was in Italian, and my neighbor didn’t recognize the address.”

The guy cursed under his breath and muttered, “Italian? Of course he didn’t recognize the address.”

Nathanael asked tentatively, “Uh, can I ask what it says?”

The guy looked up sharply, seemingly taken off guard with the question, and clicked his tongue with irritation as he searched his mind for something to tell Nathanael.

The redhead had a feeling that he wouldn’t be given the full truth as he nervously watched the guy think whilst staring at the vial.

Just what was it?

The guy finally sighed and clasped his left hand around the vial and looked over at Nathanael as he said, “It’s, uh, prescription medicine for insomnia. This particular one has a lot of, uh, dangerous side effects. It’s definitely not safe for you to take. I’ll have to bring this back to the mess hall and tell the prefects about it.”

Nathanael didn’t even care that he was being blatantly lied to. The fact that the guy panicked at all just meant that whatever was in the vial was bad.

But, he caught what the guy said about telling Felix and the other prefects, and quickly blurted out in a panic, “No!” He deflated when the guy sent him a questioning look, and Nathanael curled inwards as he added, “Uh, I mean, don’t tell the prefects. They’ll start questioning me.”

The guy with elegant, flowing dark hair sighed, before holding the vial out to Nathanael and saying in a warning and threatening tone, “Whatever, just don’t tell anyone about this, and don’t touch it. I mean it, it’s dangerous. Just put it back inside the box and hide it somewhere. And, if anyone asks, I wasn’t involved, okay?”

Nathanael quickly nodded, taking the vial, already wanting to crawl up somewhere and hide. What the guy just said actually reminded Nathanael of the things people would say to him, “Don’t touch him. He’s dangerous. He should just go hide somewhere. Put it back where it belongs. We’re not getting involved with him.”

The guy briefly nodded his head in a half-assed bow and said, “Alright, see you later. And _don’t open that vial_.”

Nathanael nodded, shivering as he retreated back into his room. He walked over to where he had put the packaging, and picked up the box, about to put the vial back inside when his curiosity got the better of him.

Nathanael gazed over the Chinese characters decorating the vial one more time, taking note of the three large ones at the front, “解毒剂.”

He had no idea what they meant.

But the guy had.

Nathanael couldn’t bring himself to put the vial back inside the box, and he shook violently with anxiety. Was it actually medication for insomnia? If so, he could actually use some, he’d been having trouble sleeping.

But what if it was a lie? What if it was actually more dangerous?

Or, what if it was less dangerous?

Nathanael shivered as he set the box down and shakily placed his hands on the vial as if to open it.

One little sip wouldn’t hurt, right?

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

 

Marinette groaned in frustration from where she sat in the chairs of the recreation center lobby.

She was getting zero progress in where Mylene was, and what happened to her.

All Marinette really knew for sure was that she had existed, but that was it.

Marinette had considered going back to check the notebook again, and maybe the rest of the box for more clues, but the office always seemed to be occupied with prefects.

There was no chance Marinette would be allowed to go back in there again, and the rest of the mess hall wouldn’t have clues.

Her best bet would be to ask one of the prefects themselves, but Felix, Rose, and Juleka were too intimidating, and Marinette wasn’t sure that they would tell her anything other than, “Mylene doesn’t exist” if she asked.

That left Nino, but the aspiring DJ was being much too elusive nowadays, always sticking to the little children.

Marinette sank back against her chair and lazily turned her head over to where Alya sat beside her, writing in a notebook, and asked with a groan, “Alyaaaaaa can you please be more supportive and help me out? I’m stuck, and you’re much better than me at investigating stuff!”

Alya shook her head, and didn’t even look over at Marinette as she said disapprovingly, “Nope, you’re on your own. Investigating this is bad news, and I am not getting involved.”

Marinette sighed and said, “I just need to find Nino... I’m sure he knows something!”

Alya shook her head and said, “Well, you’re out of luck. He’s been sticking to those little kids like glue, he’s even been avoiding _me_ lately.”

Mariette groaned again at her rotten luck and sunk further down her seat.

Just then, however, her eyes caught sight of a blue shirt and a red hat, and Marinette nearly squealed as she stood up in a flash and raced over to Nino as he passed through the recreation center.

Of course he would only show up when Marinette was about to give up. Things had a strange way of working out like that.

Marinette skidded to a stop in front of Nino and spread out her arms in to block his way as she exclaimed, “Nino! I need to talk to you.”

Nino groaned in disdain and said, “Marinette, seriously, I’m busy. Maybe some other time.”

Marinette shook her head, finally fed up with not knowing the truth, and replied, “No way! I’ve been looking for you for ages, and I need you to tell me where Mylene is and why she’s not here.”

Nino exhaled in a long sigh, and rubbed his forehead, evidently weary from Marinette’s pestering. He glanced over at Alya, who was watching the scene with a scrutinizing gaze that made Nino want to escape even more.

Marinette was the only one who was in denial of the fact that the search for Mylene was pointless.

The pigtailed girl raised an eyebrow and asked, expecting a response from Nino, “Well? Are you gonna talk?”

Nino finally looked back over at Marinette and replied in an attempt to casually placate Marinette, “Look, I’m not gonna make a scene, and there’s really no reason for you to talk to me. Back off, okay? It’s for your own good.”

Nino then stepped around Marinette and made for the stairs without a single glance back. Marinette squeaked, and, not ready to drop the topic, rushed over to catch up to Nino.

She managed to skid to a stop in front of Nino and prevent him from going up the stairs. Panting from her race to the stairwell door, she said resolutely, “I know Mylene exists for sure, just tell me what happened to her! Where is she? Why isn’t she here anymore? You have the answers, and I really want to know!”

Nino was scowling, and, after making sure that no one was listening, spat in a hushed and grave tone, “How would you feel if there were a flower that lived eternally?”

Marinette was immediately reminded of Mylene’s story from her journal, and how the gardener in the story had tragically died in his attempts to get his flowers to live forever. There was no doubt in her mind now that Nino knew something important.

But why was he asking her about eternally-living flowers? What was the significance? Was it symbolic?

Whatever the case, Marinette knew her answer to the question.

Eternal life was tragic, terrible, and horrible. Having to watch your friends die as you continued to live? Living even after the apocalypse happened?

Tragic. Marinette didn’t wish that upon anyone.

Marinette relaxed her body, now merely standing in front of the stairwell door as she said, “I’d think it’d be sad.”

Nino gave Marinette a pointed look and said shortly, “Exactly.” He then promptly pushed past Marinette to open the stairwell door and go up the stairs.

Marinette was left on the first floor of the recreation center in confusion, again. Frustrated, Marinette grumbled, and pushed the stairwell door open to go up the stairs.

Unbeknownst to Marinette, a redheaded akumatized half-breed had walked into the recreation center during her conversation with Nino. The aura of misery that surrounded him seemed to be more prominent than usual, though people were simply backing away from him as usual.

Nathanael was burning cold with envy.

What had Nino done to garner Marinette’s attention?

Pursuing Nino would only end badly, this was something that Nathanael believed in with all his heart.

Maybe it was desperation, maybe it was actual dread that something would go wrong, maybe it was the absurdity of searching for Mylene.

Either way, Nathanael vowed to protect Marinette, the only person he could remember that was consistently kind to him, and genuine about it with all her heart.

Nathanael was lonely, and so cold. But most of all, he feared losing her.

However, unbeknownst to Nathanael, and anyone else at the asylum for that matter, the vial labelled “解毒剂” or “antidote” had done its job.

Over in a place that was known as Italy, an orange pendant in the shape of a fox tail rested on a necklace chain. It glinted in the sunlight from where it was perched upon a young woman’s chest. There was just enough sunlight to tell that the young woman was smirking.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Marinette raced up the stairs, determined to reach Nino and finally get some answers. The prefect, who had been walking at a normal pace beforehand, quickened his pace upon hearing Marinette following him.

Just as Nino was about to throw open the door to the third floor, Marinette shouted, her voice echoing in the stairwell, “Nino, c’mon, I just want to know the truth.”

Nino groaned in frustration, and turned away from the door so he could yell down at Marinette, “Dude, that’s exactly why I’m not spilling. Nothing good will happen if you find out, trust me.” He then whirled back around and opened up the door to the third floor, leaving the stairwell and Marinette’s line of vision.

Marinette huffed and sprinted up the stairs, following Nino onto the third floor. She didn’t see him upon entering the hallway, and so began checking the rooms on the third floor to see if Nino was around. She even checked the rooms her sewing team used to customize clothes, but Nino wasn’t in any of them.

Just as Marinette was about to give up, however, she checked the final room on the third floor, a conference room that had fallen into disuse. In it, she spotted Nino lounging on a folding chair listening to music from headphones that he’d borrowed from the tech room. His back was to the door.

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief that she’d managed to track down the prefect, and ripped the headphones off his head to get his attention. Nino flinched and turned around in his seat on reflex. Upon seeing Marinette holding his headphones, he let out an exasperated sigh, “You just don’t give up.”

Marinette, stern and not willing to back down, tossed Nino’s headphones back to him as she said, “What’s wrong with asking about what happened to Mylene? Why won’t anyone give me a straight answer? Just tell me what happened to Mylene, and I’ll back off.”

Nino turned off his music and let the headphones rest around his neck as he shook his head gravely and replied, “It doesn’t work that way. Once you know the truth, you won’t back off. I know what you’re like, Marinette. As soon as you know, you’re going to jump to conclusions and then everything is going to fall apart. You won’t understand until it’s too late, and then where will we be?”

“I don’t know!” Marinette exclaimed, frustrated. “I don’t know, that’s why you have to tell me. I’m already jumping to conclusions! What if she’s dead? What if she ran off to join the humans? I have no idea, because you won’t tell me. I know you know something, and I know she existed, you can’t deny that.”

Nino’s face was uncharacteristically dead to any emotion, instead carrying a strange serious haunted quality to it, “Trust me, I wish I didn’t know. It’d be so much easier for me to just forget. But once I found out, there was no going back.” He paused before adding, “I’ve been trying to play it cool, but you’re not like me. You won’t deflate if you find out, you’ll pop and break. You’re better off staying innocent to it all.”

Marinette crossed her arms, and ignored the grave look in Nino’s face as she retorted, a little too headstrong, “I don’t care. Just tell me what happened to Mylene!”

Nino scowled and looked away for a moment, before standing up from sitting in the folded chair and moving to stand by the blackboard on the other side of the room. He wasn’t looking Marinette in the eyes as he finally gave in, saying in a low voice, “Do you know about the Miraculous?”

Marinette did a double take, “The miraculous what?”

Nino said in a serious voice, as if he were revealing the secret to the destruction of reality as they knew it, “The Miraculous: the one true eternally-living being. Akuma were supposedly created by him.”

She was even more confused. What did this have to do with Mylene? Was it somehow related to the story about the gardener from Mylene’s journal and the question he’d asked before about eternally living flowers?

Marinette was firm as she said, “It’s just a myth.” This was real life, not a fairy-tale. The Miraculous had always been just a rumor. If one lived forever, they’d be alone in the end no matter what, because everything else that existed would just die. It was a sad life, one that couldn’t possibly exist.

And one that Marinette didn’t believe in.

Nino shook his head, “No, it’s not. It’s real. There’s a real holder of the Miraculous out there.”

He grabbed a piece of purple chalk and drew something on the blackboard that vaguely resembled a butterfly, “He was just a normal man, a well-known tailor. But then things got tragic, he became obsessed with finding a hidden piece of treasure. He died when he found it, but, instead of staying dead like any other normal thing, he came back. From then on, he remained alive for all of eternity.”

Marinette bit her lip. The story was tragic, but, just that, a story. Immortality was science fiction, and this didn’t have anything to do with Mylene... right? But then, Marinette remembered Mylene’s story about the gardener, and how he’d tried to make the flowers live as long as he did.

...Was it a different version of the story that Nino was telling her now?

And, if so, then, why would the Miraculous freak Mylene out enough for her to want to include it in her journal?

Marinette blurted out, “What does this have to do with Mylene?”

Nino ignored the question and continued on. Marinette had gotten him started, and he couldn’t stop now, “That man became the one true guardian of the Miraculous. However, he got lonely as everything else died. But when he gave a few others the Miraculous, most of them went mad, and he was forced to take the Miraculous back.

Nino added, “He had to try to give others the power to live as long as he could without the Miraculous. The Miraculous had given him the powers to do it, but his plan failed, and akuma were born as a result.”

Marinette opened her mouth to interrupt Nino again, but found that she couldn’t find anything to say. The story was interesting, but, so what? It couldn’t be real. The cycle of life was that everything lived to make the most of their existence before death. If one lived eternally, there would be no more purpose to live. There would be no reason to make the most of their existence, since they’d be existing forever.

Nino continued, “He swore off of trying to do anything like that again, but the damage was already done. He’d created a whole new species of butterfly and people that were too corrupt with power and negativity to be actual butterflies or people.”

Nino sat down in another folding chair to continue his story, and Marinette watched from the other side of the room, “After centuries of loneliness, he broke his promise, and fell in love. By the time he realized, it was too late, and his love was pregnant. He disappeared, not wanting to corrupt his son, and he didn’t, the son was born mortal. But his love couldn’t bear to raise a son without him, and disappeared, abandoning the baby.”

Marinette stared as the story spewed out of Nino, wondering just how much of it could actually be true. Someone else was watching them both, and was shaking with a complex combination of rage and despair.

Nino was sitting with his hands clasped and resting on the table, staring at his hands as he continued, “The poor kid was neglected during his childhood. And, when he was akumatized, he was shipped off to an asylum just like this one, where he was isolated by his peers. When someone finally reached out to him, it just so happened to be someone obsessed with the legend of the Miraculous. They both perished in their quest to find the treasure, but the treasure came to them.”

Nino looked up as he explained, “The true guardian of the Miraculous had done the one thing he had vowed to never do again: he gave the poor kid the gift of Miraculous. But, the true guardian of the Miraculous abandoned his son again.”

Nino continued, “But, the kid was a false Miraculous, since he got it secondhand from the true guardian of the Miraculous. So when the kid went crazy from loneliness, he couldn’t give others the Miraculous, because he was false. So, he tried to kill himself for good or search for daddy to get him to take it back instead. None of it worked, and so the poor neglected kid was left alone like always.”

Marinette interrupted Nino then, “Ok, I’m going to stop you there. If any of this is true, what’s the point? What does this have to do with Mylene?” Marinette was still skeptical of the idea of eternal life, but Nino’s story had, admittedly, felt very real.

But, Marinette didn’t care. She just wanted to know where Mylene was, and, even if eternal life was real, Marinette wouldn’t want to get involved with it.

She would die one day, because you lived to make the most out of your life. And you wouldn’t feel the need to make the most out of your life if you lived forever. You’d be living forever, so what was the point of living each day to the fullest, if you lived an endless amount of days?

It was ironic, those who lived eternally would struggle the most with finding a purpose for themselves.

Marinette was not about that struggle.

Nino blinked, and looked up from the table to make eye contact with Marinette. He’d been so caught up in telling the story, that he’d forgotten where he was going with it. So, instead, he asked, “Are you scared of dying?”

Marinette shook her head and stated with no hesitation, “No, everyone has to die eventually.”

Nino nodded and leaned back in his chair, sounding distant as he remarked, “Yeah, some people have accepted that, I guess.”

Marinette sighed in exasperation. While the story was interesting, and it seemed emotionally taxing for Nino to tell, and he appreciated him for sharing it, she just couldn’t comprehend what it had to do with Mylene. Had she been so freaked out by the Miraculous that she’d committed suicide?

No, that was absurd.

So, Marinette asked, frustrated with how Nino was avoiding direct explanations, “What about Mylene?”

Nino heard the question, but ignored it, instead drumming his fingers on the table as he asked slowly, “What if... the Miraculous is in this very clan?”

Just then, an anguished and tortured voice broke through their air of the unused conference room, “That’s enough! Stop, please!”

Marinette whirled around to face the door, and Nino snapped his head around to look towards the door. It had been left open during their conversation, and one of the only people who had come across them had entered the room, not able to take Nino’s story anymore.

It was Nathanael, the akumatized half-breed.

He had taken but two steps into the room before stopping, shaking and trembling from an urgent despair.

Nino’s story had hit too close to home.

A child having been abandoned by his family and peers just for being the way he was?

That was the story of his life.

It was his akuma father with his horrible reputation that had gotten Nathanael bullied by his childhood peers in the first place. He’d been too depressed to help his son.

It was his human mother who gave in to public opinion and began pushing his son away, just because he was a half-breed. Even though he was more human-like, he’d still been bullied.

And then he’d gotten akumatized. Anything he drew could come to life and it had disastrous results. None of it was intentional, but he had to face the consequences anyway.

He’d been bullied and isolated even more.

So, hearing Nino’s story, and how there was a possibility that there was someone like him out there, living his life, but having to live it forever, was appalling.

Nathanael simply couldn’t comprehend it.

While Marinette was just denying it out of ignorance and her beliefs, Nathanael was denying it out of experience.

He knew what such emotional torture was like, and if it was impossible to bear in a temporary life span like his own, how could one live eternally with that kind of burden?

It was unfathomable.

Besides, what could Nino, a normal akuma, ever know about the abuse an akumatized half-breed had to take? For all he knew, the laid-back prefect had been appropriating the experience to lure Marinette in, using her quest to find Mylene for his own ends.

These weren’t Nino’s actual intentions at all, of course. And deep inside, Nathanael knew that.

But the fact of the matter was that Nino knew something important, something that would let Marinette loose and destroy everything.

Yet, Marinette couldn’t see that. She was on the cusp of giving in and listening to Nino, it was obvious. Her curiosity would get the better of her, and Nathanael would lose her if that happened. He’d lose the only person to stand up for him.

Nathanael couldn’t deal with that possibility.

The contents of the vial he’d received in the mail, the “antidote,” spurred his problematic thoughts, encouraged them, and clawed at the restraints that would have normally held them at bay. But these thoughts were purely his own. The antidote didn’t change them, only magnified them.

Nino blinked incredulously at Nathanael’s interruption, surprised at his arrival, and but knew something was up with how much the redhead was trembling. But, Nino was aware of the redhead’s fondness for Marinette, and so he asked warily, not wanting to set half-breed off on a rampage, “Uh, you ok, dude?”

Marinette had been annoyed that Nathanael had prevented her from finally getting a straight answer out of Nino, but, when Nino asked the question, she’d finally noticed how upset the redhead looked. She was genuinely concerned for his well-being, and not just worried that he’d go on a rampage,

She asked in concern, “Did you need something?”

Nathanael slowly shook his head and stuttered, “N-no, just, stop, Nino, please, with the story.”

Nino stared at Nathanael, surprised. He’d assumed that Nathanael was jealous of him for being so close to Marinette, who was obviously the subject of Nathanael’s crush. But, it was apparent now that he was partially wrong.

Nino then ignorantly asked, clueless to the story’s similarities to Nathanael’s past, and the pain it caused half-breed, “Uh, what do you mean?”

And then Nathanael raised his voice. It wasn’t loud compared to how Nino and Marinette were shouting in the stairwell, but it was the loudest Marinette had ever heard from Nathanael, “Stop! That story of yours, it’s-it’s poison! It’s myth! You’re poisoning Marinette with your words!”

Nino was taken aback. He really didn’t know Nathanael that well personally, the other prefects were the ones that handled the redhead more, all Nino ever did was wordlessly escort him to his room. But he knew nevertheless that the half-breed had never raised his voice before.

Though with Nathanael’s anxiety, Nino supposed it was only a matter of time.

Despite Nathanael’s strange behavior, Nino agreed with Nathanael in the sense that Marinette was better off not knowing the truth.

But, hey, he’d gotten this far, and what he’d said was no myth, it was the truth. So, why not?

Nino then drawled in a sarcastic tone, “What? That Miraculous holders, true guardian or not, will live eternally even if the world ended? Imagine having to watch everyone you love die before your eyes, and then having to live on. Imagine going through this cycle over and over again, and all you could do was watch, and wait.”

Thinking about such suffering, and for all of eternity no less, was painful for Nathanael. It dug up old wounds, horrible memories that he himself had hidden. Nathanael shook his head, not wanting to think about it, and also driven by his desire to prevent Marinette from going back to Nino, “No! Stop, please!”

Marinette was torn. With how Nino kept pressing the story, she knew now that it hadn’t just been a random story to throw her off of her search for Mylene, especially with how it had been in Mylene’s journal. It was important and had to do with Mylene’s disappearance somehow, even if it was only a myth.

She wanted to know more, but she was also concerned for Nathanael’s well-being.

Marinette guessed that the story was a trigger for Nathanael’s anxiety, but what she missed was the part that Nino got: the part that had to do with Nathanael’s feelings for Marinette.

Marinette compromised. She walked over to Nathanael, and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and placate him as she whispered to Nathanael, “Shh, it’s ok. It’s just a story.” She turned over to look at Nino and asked, “What does this myth specifically have to do with Mylene’s disappearance?”

Nathanael was shaking as he grabbed the hand that rested his shoulder with both of his and pulled Marinette away from Nino and said, “No, Marinette, please, stop asking. Nino’s crazy, this story is bad. Let’s go, please.”

Marinette protested, “But, he knows something about Mylene!”

Nathanael shook his head, and pulled Marinette away, begging, “ _Please_.” He then said to Nino, “Don’t talk about this stuff with Marinette anymore.” With that, he pulled Marinette out of the conference room.

They hadn’t taken two steps out of the room before Marinette impulsively ripped her hand away from Nathanael’s, and the redhead whipped around in shock, petrified by fear. Had he angered Marinette? No, he couldn’t live with himself if he’d done so, Marinette deserved to be _happy_. And she sure won’t be happy if she pursued Nino’s story.

Nevertheless he stood there shaking, and Marinette’s anger dissolved, no longer frustrated at being taken away from her only lead on where Mylene was upon seeing how affected Nathanael had been.

Marinette sighed, and looked back at Nino, who looked gloomy as he remained sitting at the table, but not otherwise protesting Marinette’s departure. She turned back to look at Nathanael, and saw the panic and fear in his eyes, and how much he was shaking.

Nino hadn’t told her anything except the stupid story, and now she was losing her chance to find out more.

But, as long as Nathanael was so freaked out by the story, she would never be able to find out more. But if she could get Nathanael out of this, she could continue her search for Mylene.

What Marinette was clueless to was the half-breed’s fixation on her, and just how much he had latched onto the only person who showed him kindness, and how the antidote had augmented those feelings into something problematic.

Marinette sighed, and walked towards the stairwell, beckoning for Nathanael to follow, the story still on her mind.

She’d go along with Nathanael, for now.

But her search for Mylene would always be her mission.


	8. A Shared Illusion of Utopia

 

> _Let’s dream together, and share the same dream._
> 
> _This is our utopia, so let’s dream together as you please._
> 
> _Let this happy dream last forever, locked away like a precious treasure._
> 
> _Time, I bid you to stop! I’ll give you eternal beauty._
> 
> _Dreaming alone is lonely, but let’s dream a blissful dream together._
> 
> _This world is cruel to make us live alone, so let’s dream the same dream._

* * *

 

Nino watched Marinette and Nathanael leave the unused conference room. As soon as they were gone, he groaned and slumped on the table, and purposely banged his head on it once.

With his upper body and arms flopped onto the table, he let out an exasperated, “What am I even doing?”

What was he thinking to accomplish by telling Marinette the story? She obviously didn’t believe it, and, if anything, it would make her too curious, and she’d jump the gun and someone would have to pay for it like last time.

Marinette was impulsive, as evidenced by her endless mission to find Mylene. If Nino told her any more then she’d jump to conclusions, and then that’d be it.

The end.

Fin.

Sayonara.

Nino rested his elbow on the table so he could then rest his chin in the palm of his hand, slouching and muttering, “I’m so stupid.”

A calm and collected voice then floated into the room with a, “I wouldn’t say that, but telling Marinette that story is going to have serious consequences.”

Nino immediately straightened in his seat, letting his hand fall back on the table, and looked up towards the door in surprise. He could recognize that voice anywhere.

Felix smoothly side-stepped into view of the doorway, having been listening in from the opposite direction of where Nathanael had been, and entered the room. Felix shut the door behind him, something Nino and the others had neglected to do, before sitting himself down in a nearby folding chair. He and Nino were on opposite ends of the room.

Nino scratched the back of his head, accidentally nudging his red hat, before awkwardly saying, “Uh, hey, Felix. Didn’t know you were listening in, dude.” He winced, realizing that Felix was the person who would be most upset about Nino spreading around the story of the Miraculous, and added, “Uh, how much did you hear?”

Felix closed his eyes as he felt a headache coming on. The blonde brought the palms of his hands up to rub at his forehead to quell it as he muttered, “About as much as Nathanael did.” He then visibly cringed in pain, planting his elbows on the table as his hands went up to massage his head in an attempt to fight off the dizzying pain.

Nino, concerned, stood up from his seat and asked, “Dude, you ok? Do you want me to run to the mess hall and get you some pain meds?”

Felix waved his hand, knowing he’d straight-up collapse if he shook his head, and said, “No, I’ll be fine. It’s just my anemia, I’ll deal with it later.”

The blonde kept his eyes closed and his hands massaging his head as he added, “More importantly, you shouldn’t talk about stuff like that with Marinette, Nathanael, or anyone else. I realize you were probably panicking with how much Marinette was grilling you, but there were other ways to remove yourself from the situation without having to resort to telling that story.”

Nino sat back down in his chair with a frustrated sigh as he replied, “I know that already.”

And he did.

Both he and Felix knew how Marinette, and a few certain others, could get with their demands to know the truth.

They also knew how they would warp the truth once they found out, only allowing themselves to listen to and understand parts of it before they took action and destroyed everything.

The Miraculous legend itself wasn’t the issue with Nino’s conversation with Marinette.

The problem was that Nino had told the legend in response to Marinette’s questions about Mylene.

Felix let one hand fall to the table and the other propped his head up, his face scrunched up in a weary pain. Nevertheless, he murmured to Nino, “Then you can stop being tense. If you go back to being your easy-going self, then there’s a chance that Marinette will stop suspecting you.”

Something told Nino that Marinette wouldn’t give up so easily. Getting suspicious from how Felix worded it, he looked up and narrowed his eyes, “You aren’t going to do _that_ , are you?”

Felix shook his head, and immediately winced in pain, “No, uh, not right now. My anemia’s too bad. I’ll do it as a last resort. For now, just try to relax more, you’ll be less angry, and Marinette will eventually move on if you keep it up. Stick with the kids, you’re their favorite prefect.”

Felix’s hand then slipped and his head unceremoniously flopped, nearly slamming into the table. Felix instead let his head rest down on the table, his eyes closed and body slumped over as he rubbed at his head, “Then I’ll just have to divert Marinette’s attention away from Mylene, and also tell Rose and Juleka to increase Nathanael’s dose of secondary medicine. He’ll probably need it.”

Nino pursed his lips. It was clear that Felix was pushing himself too far with how much his anemia was affecting him, but Nino knew that Felix was more devoted to the asylum than the rest of them.

The reserved blonde would not be easing up on his workload anytime soon.

And, while a part of Nino knew that he’d spill the beans if Marinette asked again, the larger part of him was more than willing to just kick back, jam with the kids, and remove himself from all the drama.

But, if Felix was going to run himself into the ground, he’d loose his grip on everything, and it’d all fall apart anyway.

Nino sighed, there was no easy way to remedy the situation.

Should he fall back into the background and hope Marinette didn’t confront him again?

Should he actually start collaborating with Rose, Juleka, and Felix, even if he didn’t totally agree with their methods?

Should he reveal the truth to Marinette?

Nino could either help perpetuate the utopia or help break it.

Nino idly scratched his head and decided that he was thinking way too much. He looked over at Felix, watching how the stress and his condition tore him apart. Just watching him was giving Nino a headache of his own.

But ever since Nino found out, he’d been going along with it all in fear of what would happen if the truth was revealed. And it wasn’t paranoia. He, Felix, Rose, and Juleka all knew exactly what would happen if the truth was revealed.

But, would all their efforts be in vain?

Nino, instead of responding to Felix’s plan, asked a question that he already knew the answer to, “What’ll happen to all of us?”

Felix didn’t answer, simply remaining slumped over on the table. Nino almost thought that the blonde had fallen asleep, but then Felix asked, dodging Nino’s question, “Are you scared?”

Nino frowned, disgruntled. Well if Felix was going to be like that, then two could play at that game.

The blue-skinned prefect deadpanned, being mostly sarcastic, “Of you, maybe.”

Felix chuckled, but it was hollow, “Well, that’s not good.”

Nino wasn’t deterred by the fake laugh. He, Rose, and Juleka were well aware of how time had emptied Felix of everything except for pain.

Today the blonde’s façade was just off. That was all.

Felix added, his voice entirely serious yet muffled by the table, “What I want the most is for all of you to be happy. The asylum, above all, is for you guys. If it were up to me, we’d all be here forever, but...”

Felix finally lifted himself off of the table, but kept his head bowed and hands rested on the table as he added, his face pained, “I just have to know if-” He cut himself off, sounding insecure. He wasn’t able to be weak like this around anyone else besides Nino, Rose, and Juleka.

While most wouldn’t have known what Felix was talking about, Nino knew just what Felix was referring to, and knew it had to do with him. Nino frowned, it also had to do with the very thing that he was against Rose, Juleka, and Felix doing. Nino asked cautiously, “You aren’t going to try it on me, are you?”

Felix hastily shook his head, his eyes screwed shut against the pain, and replied, being entirely genuine, “No, of course not. While you’re the one most likely to have it, I can’t risk losing you, too.” He added under his breath, “We’ve lost too many.”

Nino didn’t need to even look at Felix’s face to know that the blonde was conflicted, and remarked, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, “But you’re still curious.”  

Felix let out another short, hollow laugh as he said in distress, “How could I not be? I’ll never know for sure unless I try, but if I do, and it fails, you’ll be-” Felix cut himself off, and balled his hands up as he added, “I can’t risk it.”

Nino asked skeptically, knowing Felix was genuinely pained but not sure if it was enough to stop him, “Would Rose and Juleka be willing to risk it?”

Felix shook his head, “I don't think so. Juleka’s almost at the end of her rope, and I don’t know if she can handle much more.” He chuckled bitterly, “She’s almost as defeated as I was.” There was a pause before he added, “Rose can’t take much more either, but she won’t topple over like Juleka.”

Nino nodded knowingly as he said, “Rose is more expressive with emotions and stuff, so she’d just fly off the handle and get violent.”

While others would think Juleka would be more likely to get violent when things got bad because of the whip she carried around, the truth was that she was introverted and reserved. She couldn’t express her emotions as well as Rose could, who was more assertive despite being more feminine.

The two worked in tandem, supported each other in their weak spots. Juleka took care of punishments because she could hold herself back. Rose took the lead during lessons because she had the courage to do so.

When things went wrong and Juleka couldn’t keep her emotions bottled up anymore, Rose would shove her own aside and unleash her wrath.

They were opposites, but they complemented each other.

Felix and Nino were well aware of how their dynamic worked.

Felix nodded in agreement with what Nino said, and let out a long sigh as he said, “They’ve both sacrificed too much for me.”

All Felix had wanted was for everyone at the asylum to live in harmony for as long as possible. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. There were too many things that he was unsure of, and too many hardships that he had to go through for reassurance. Felix bit his lip as he stared downwards, a few of his tears hitting the table as he thought of how grateful he was for how much the other prefects had helped him out when he struggled.

The two sat in silence. Felix only letting his tears fall because it was just Nino who was in the room.

The blonde prefect was tired, so tired, but also grieving and scared of what would occur if things went wrong. But it was for these very reasons that he, Rose, and Juleka were so dedicated to the asylum, even if some of their methods were questionable.

Nino understood them better than anyone else.

But Marinette wouldn’t understand. She wouldn’t even think to understand. People like her were impulsive. They’d make their own judgements without really knowing what people like Felix had to go through.

They had to protect the asylum, under all costs.

Felix let his head rest in his hand as he said, “I have to make sure that this lasts, I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.”

Nino sighed, and conceded, “I won’t stop you.”

He won’t

He didn’t want to think of what would happen if he did.


End file.
